June 4, 1985

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, whose price structure is under increasing pressure because of sluggish demand for oil, moved up its next full meeting by about three weeks, to June 30 from July 22. The decision follows recent reports that Britain, Norway and the Soviet Union - major oil producers that do not belong to OPEC - are preparing to cut their oil prices by as much as $1.40 a barrel. [In the United States, analysts were skeptical that OPEC would be able to keep prices from falling.

Short- and long-term interest rates declined sharply yesterday and are now approaching lows not seen since June 1980. As interest rates come down and inflation remains low, investor psychology and investment practices are shifting from the pattern of the last five years, when there was a widespread bias against long-term bonds in favor of short-term issues whose value would not fall the next time inflation turned up. ''I now see insurance companies that bought only intermediate-term issues now looking at 20-year bonds because they need the higher yield on the long-term issue,'' said Bruce J. Young, president of Rodman & Renshaw Inc., a Chicago securities firm. Other analysts said that the absence of a rally in the stock market had helped raise bond prices because it portended a weak economy through the balance of the year. As yields on Treasury bills have fallen to just above 7 percent, investors have moved out to longer-term maturities, thus causing higher prices and lower yields for those issues as well. Yesterday, for example, the yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell below 10 percent for the first time since 1980.

TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1985 Companies Jacob F. Butcher was sentenced to prison for concurrent 20-year terms for defrauding his banks of as much as $30 million. The sentence was the maximum the judge could impose and, according to the Justice Department, one of the stiffest ever for a white-collar crime. The Tennessee banker contributed to the collapse of the United American Bank of Knoxville, of which he was chairman, which was followed by the failure of other banks in Tennessee and Kentucky that he and his brother controlled. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said that United American's closing may involve losses of $450 million. [Page A1.] A Merrill Lynch executive was named president of E.F. Hutton. The appointment of Robert P. Rittereiser was part of a reshuffling of management at Hutton, which acted one month after pleading guilty to defrauding small banks through a check-writing system that gave it interest-free loans. Mr. Rittereiser, 46, was executive vice president at Merrill and becomes the third high-ranking executive to leave that company within the past 14 months. [D1.]

European and American negotiators reported progress today toward resolving a contentious steel dispute. Under a provisional agreement reached here this weekend, West German and French steelmakers would be permitted to ship 100,000 tons of steel pipe to the United States in addition to the import quota now in effect. The tentative accord was worked out by the Common Market's External Affairs Commissioner, Willy de Clercq, and Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige. Mr. de Clercq's visit was not announced. He left Saturday after six hours of negotiations Friday and Saturday with Mr. Baldrige. With their provisional agreement, European and American officials said, it is now necessary to get industry approval on both sides of the Atlantic. In the European Economic Community, member states' approval is also needed.

Reversing itself in a dispute with Federal judges and thousands of disabled people, the Reagan Administration announced today that it would generally follow court precedents requiring the payment of Social Security disability benefits. In the last few years, the Government has attempted to cut off the monthly disability payments to almost half a million people, generally on the ground that they were no longer too ill or injured to work. In thousands of cases, people have won court rulings that their benefits were improperly terminated. The Government has put these individuals back on the rolls but has refused to restore benefits to people in like situations; people with similar claims had to file suit themselves.