January 17, 1986

The gold market, defying several bearish influences, staged one of its most powerful rallies in years, only to fall back nearly as sharply toward the end of trading yesterday. In a worldwide speculative binge, spot gold prices soared $30 an ounce in Europe, before suffering a pounding from investors taking profits. The market bobbed erratically in New York, before closing $7.10 higher for the day, at $356.60. That was its highest finish since July 5, 1984, and follows a solid month of increases.

An article yesterday about the International PEN Congress misidentified the author who questioned the Chinese writer Lu Wenfu about freedom of expression in China. She was Judith Shapiro, not Judith Schwartz.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger continued to disagree publicly today on using force against terrorist provocations in general and Libya in particular. The development came as Washington moved to deal with a new public threat from Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader. On Wednesday, Colonel Qaddafi vowed to help train Arabs for ''suicide missions.'' Mr. Shultz, urging firm action against the Qaddafi Government, said today that ''when we identify the source'' of terrorism, ''such as Qaddafi, who is clearly identified, then we have to go after it.''

A pedestrian was killed and two others were injured when an automobile lurched out of control and onto a Fifth Avenue sidewalk during the morning rush hour yesterday. According to the police, the car apparently went out of control at 8:20 A.M. at the corner of 56th Street and Fifth Avenue, collided with a truck, then struck three pedestrians before crashing into the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe store at 717 Fifth Avenue. The woman who was killed, Joan Mele, 59 years old, of Ridgefield, Conn., was hit as she was walking to her job as a secretary at Fugazy Express Inc., whose offices are upstairs at No. 717.

''IT'S something I've always dreamed of,'' says Ken Marshall. ''It's the greatest work you can do as an actor,'' says Tovah Feldshuh. ''It's the proper way to create theater,'' says Marshall Mason. ''It'' is alternating repertory, a species regularly proclaimed to be endangered if not extinct in contemporary New York theater. But a look around the city this weekend reveals a surprising amount of repertory in Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway theaters. And despite the familiar complaint that there is no audience in New York for serious theater, let alone the classics, this season's schedules boast such illustrious names as Shakespeare and Ibsen, Gorky and Camus. ''I think there's a new surge of interest in repertory,'' said Mr. Mason, artistic director of the Circle Repertory Company. ''The question of whether repertory can survive in America is and always has been an economic matter. It's just that repertory is expensive. It's never been a question of whether there's a better way of doing it artistically. Repertory was always considered the true way to practice the art of the theater. It's what almost all actors in their soul would like to do.''