November 6, 1984

A picture caption in Metropolitan Report on Thursday with an article about the 63d Street subway between Manhattan and Queens misidentified a nearly completed station. It was the Roosevelt Island station.

Short-term interest rates fell sharply yesterday amid rampant speculation by traders and economists that the Federal Reserve had moved to ease monetary policy and encourage lower interest rates. The drop in short-term rates, which amounted to more than a quarter of a percentage point for outstanding securities, spilled over into the note and bond markets, where yields fell modestly for Treasury, corporate and tax- exempt issues. But the largest declines were in the short-term market, where rates on new Treasury bills fell more than half a percentage point from last week's auctions, with the three-month issue averaging 8.82 percent, down from 9.38 percent, and six-month bills at 9.07 percent, down from 9.59 percent. Dow Advances 12.59 The surging credit market helped buoy the stock market yesterday, after its seesaw performance of last week. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 12.59 points, to 1,229.24. Volume slackened to 84.7 million shares.

The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States announced yesterday that it would purchase Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc., a leading Wall Street securities firm. The acquisition continues the blending of the stock brokerage, banking and insurance industries as these businesses seek their niches in a deregulated marketplace. In recent years, the Prudential Life Insurance Company of America has bought the Bache Group Inc., a major stock brokerage firm; the American Express Company has diversified into securities, and many banks have begun Gulf and Western said it would make a tender offer of $70 a share for Prentice-Hall stock. Page D1.

A list in Metropolitan Report yesterday of candidates for election today omitted several names.

The small band of armed men walking on a provincial road north of Manila recently was a rag-tag bunch, a Western diplomat recalled. As he approached in his car, the diplomat noted that the men were dressed in T-shirts, jeans and sandals. Some were bearded, a few were smoking. This, the Western military specialist figured worriedly, was to be an encounter with the Communist insurgents, the New People's Army. No, his driver assured him, the scruffy men ahead were not Communist guerrillas, they were members of the Philippine Army manning a checkpoint.