January 6, 1984

Governor Cuomo, who called this week for a state constitutional amendment on equal rights for women, did so even though leaders of the women's movement had urged him not to. The leaders, from the National Organization for Women and the National Women's Political Caucus, told Mr. Cuomo through his aides that while they did not oppose the concept of a state amendment, their strategy was to focus all their resources on the fight for a Federal amendment. Efforts to pass a Federal amendment have become stalled in the last few years, and his proposal, they said, could be counterproductive. ''The policy was to press for a Federal E.R.A. and not get diverted into state E.R.A.'s,'' Barbara T. Rochman, president of the New York City chapter of NOW, said today. ''It's a matter of what strategically was best.''

For United States auto makers, 1983 was a year when rebates ended and sharp cost cutting combined with solid sales to produce a financial turnaround that analysts said was little short of spectacular. The industry reported today that it continued its rebound last year from the worst sales slump since World War II, selling 6,786,977 cars for the year, an increase of 17.9 percent over the 5,756,658 sold in 1982. Including import sales of 2,368,764, a total of 9,155,741 cars were sold in the United States in 1983, making it the best sales year since 1979, when 10.5 million were sold. Sales in 1982 totaled 7,955,970.

An innovative program of medical care for the poor that the Reagan Administration hoped would serve as a model for the nation has been dogged by large excess costs and charges of corruption and mismanagement. The cost of administering the program, which seeks to cut the price of health care by stimulating competition among doctors and hospitals, is over four times what was predicted, according to Arizona legislators who opposed the proposal. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Arizona Attorney General's office are investigating accusations of graft and possible involvement of organized crime. Some doctors and patients are complaining that the program is crippled by bureaucratic inefficiency.

Investors who loaded up on high- technology mutual funds when the market boom started 18 months ago made a killing in the first half of 1983. But those who failed to bail out by summer very likely suffered heavy losses that often wiped out their earlier gains. The funds that did well in the last half of the year were heavy in international stocks or more traditional businesses like tobacco and insurance. Those are the conclusions of the first full analysis of how mutual funds performed last year, released earlier this week by Lipper Analytical Services. The numbers show that despite the overall strength of the market last year, most investors who profited in mutual funds did so by radically redirecting their portfolios by the beginning of the third quarter.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1984 The Economy The S.E.C. charged that Paul Thayer illegally helped eight people to make $1.9 million in the stock market by giving them ''insider'' information in 1981 and 1982, before he became Deputy Secretary of Defense. Mr. Thayer said the complaint was based on ''a distorted view of selected facts.'' The eight people included a Dallas stockbroker who is a longtime acquaintance and a woman with whom Mr. Thayer had a ''personal relationship,'' the commission said. (Page A1.) Top Administration officials were unaware until two weeks ago of the questions concerning Mr. Thayer's conduct that led to the filing of a complaint, according to a White House aide. (D3.) The S.E.C. suit describes a pattern of illegal trading by a group of people with social and professional ties. (D3.)