August 23, 1984

The troubled Financial Corporation of America said today that its directors had promoted three senior executives to a newly created office of the president, but it added that Charles W. Knapp would continue as chairman and chief executive. The board described the changes as ''very positive,'' but it did not indicate the reasoning behind them. Harvey Rosen, a partner in Rosen, Wachtell & Gilbert, a law firm that specializes in the financial services industry, called the changes ''an effort to stave off the regulators.'' ''But,'' he added, ''I don't think it's going to accomplish that. So long as Knapp appears to have unfettered authority, the regulators are not going to be satisfied.''

Whether Tom Ritter makes money growing soybeans this year may depend a lot on what Paul A. Volcker does. Mr. Ritter, a 32-year-old farmer in this small central Illinois town, normally pays little attention to the pronouncements of the Federal Reserve chairman or to international currency flows. Nevertheless if his farm breaks even this year, it will depend largely on how high interest rates are and how strong the dollar is. The dollar's high foreign-exchange value, which makes American products more expensive for foreigners to buy, is severely eroding the overseas market for soybeans - normally more than half of this country's soybean crop is exported each year. The weakening demand abroad, together with forecasts that this year's harvest will be far larger than last year's, has helped drive soybean prices down more than $2 a bushel from a year ago, when a serious drought pushed prices up.

Shimon Peres, head of the Labor Alignment, signed an agreement today with Ezer Weizman, drawing the former Defense Minister and his party, which has three seats in the new Parliament, firmly into the Labor camp. The agreement, reportedly a carefully constructed document, dealt a heavy blow to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's chances of continuing to govern. Israeli radio commentators spoke tonight of other small parties' moving to Labor's side, with the possibility that Mr. Peres could be able to form a government by next week. Likud Leaders Stunned News of the agreement stunned leaders of Mr. Shamir's Likud bloc who have been negotiating with Labor leaders over the establishment of a broadly based national unity government. Both sides have been equally active in seeking to form narrow coalitions after the inconclusive parliamentary elections on July 23.

The Consumer Price Index, the most widely followed gauge of inflation, rose at a somewhat faster rate in July than in the two preceding months, the Labor Department reported today. The index was up three-tenths of 1 percent last month. Although some analysts said they saw in this increase a hint of revived upward pressure on prices, the general view of Administration and private economists was that today's report showed that inflation remained well in check and that this would continue until after Election Day. ''The figures look good,'' said Larry M. Speakes, the White House spokesman. ''We're staying on the path of steady growth with lower inflation.''

The founder and father figure of the modern Republican Party limped onto the rostrum tonight, ailing but triumphant. His words were strong but the delivery was halting, and he was received more as a party elder than as an oracle. But the crowd cheered when he revived an old campaign theme and said of President Reagan, ''And in your hearts, you know he's right.'' Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona was here to speak his mind, in his inimitable, unvarnished style, and no one was going to stop him. He struck the themes he has burnished through a life in politics, ignoring White House and Reagan campaign officials, who hoped he would tone down his oratory.