January 22, 1986

As crude oil prices continued their downward spiral yesterday, analysts and economists found the news generally good for consumers and the United States economy, but potentially very bad for oil-exporting countries, oil companies and banks with large portfolios of energy loans. So far, they said, the fall in oil prices could have positive effects by making gasoline and other products made with petroleum less expensive, thereby spurring economic growth and helping to keep inflation low. It would also benefit industries such as airlines that use much fuel.

A report in New York Day by Day on Jan. 10 described a protest by a Porsche owner, Donald Schupak, who hired a picket to walk outside the two sites of Porsche-Audi Manhattan Inc. with a sign saying, ''Porsche-Audi Manhattan Does Not Honor Its Repair Warranties.'' Mr. Schupak contended that after his car had been repaired and the problem recurred, the shop failed to honor the warranty on the first repair. Mr. Schupak refused to pay for the second repair, and his car remained in the shop.

President Reagan has decided to seek $90 million to $100 million in military and other aid to the rebels seeking the overthrow of the Nicaraguan Government, a ranking White House official said today. The official said at least $60 million would be used for military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, generally called contras. He said the remainder would be set aside for food, medicine, clothing, boots and other nonlethal supplies. The disclosure about the aid package came as Congress returned from a monthlong recess.

Wall Street stock prices slumped in heavy volume yesterday after the investment community, focusing on the negative implications of lower oil prices, battered shares of energy and banking concerns. Traders said the market was also dragged lower by selling programs begun in the early afternoon by major institutions when stock index futures began selling too cheaply, giving them the opportunity to profit on arbitrage plays. ''There were two factors,'' said Jack Conlon, head trader for E.F. Hutton & Company, ''one technical and one fundamental.'' Weak oil prices are often fundamentally positive for both business and the market, but this time, Mr. Conlon said, Wall Street felt it was ''too much of a good thing, rekindling banking industry fears.''

Incompetent doctors are allowed to keep on practicing in New York State because the procedures for disciplining them are slow and inefficient, witnesses said yesterday at a City Hall hearing. The editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Arnold D. Relman, said the percentage of doctors disciplined under New York State laws was among the lowest in the nation. In 1984 fewer than 25 of New York's more than 40,000 doctors had their licenses revoked or suspended by the state, according to figures cited by Dr. Relman and other witnesses.

WHILE Americans are embracing traditional Spanish foods such as paella and gazpacho, Spaniards are increasingly turning to something else. Many are calling it new Spanish cuisine. There is no one definable taste or method. It is more a process, begun a decade ago and steadily growing, to lighten food while maintaining flavor, sometimes clear and simple, sometimes rich and earthy. ''A great rennaissance is under way in Spanish cooking,'' said Inaki Oyarbide, chef at Principe de Viana, a popular Madrid restaurant and one of the pacesetters. ''It is part of the great social and cultural changes taking place all over Spain.'' The new Spanish cuisine includes dishes such as Mr. Oyarbide's baked hake sitting atop a pureed green bell pepper sauce, a modern version of a hake and sliced peppers preparation. Or there is oxtail with a sage-flavored sauce of pureed green beans, leeks, onions and swiss chard, all favorite Spanish ingredients but traditionally used in more stewlike dishes. Pedro Larumbe, the chef of Cabo Mayor in Madrid and winner of the 1985 Ministry of Culture prize as Spain's best chef, serves new-style specialties such as quail in a refined version of Spanish escabeche, a mixture of olive oil, wine vinegar, onions, thyme and toasted bay leaves more often used to marinate fish fillets.

As one of the city's few remaining single-room-occupancy hotels, the Hotel 17 at 225 East 17th Street has its share of the poor, the elderly and the mentally ill. But those traditional S.R.O. tenants are now living side by side with young working people who have been locked out of the apartment market by high rents. The new tenants, who pay from $105 to $130 a week for their small, dingy rooms, have come carting their books, stereos and tape decks, their button-down shirts and Adidas running shoes. ''This is a pattern that has been developing across the city over the past few years,'' said Donna Smith, an organizer for the Eastside S.R.O. Legal Services Project, a nonprofit advocacy group financed by the city. ''It's a problem -there is simply no affordable housing being built and so people are competing for anything that's left.''

Two dispatches from France - one on Monday from Paris and one yesterday from Lille - about British-French plans to build a tunnel under the English Channel misidentified one member of the construction consortium. The three state-owned French banks include Banque Indosuez, not Paribas.

Two white policemen were reported today to have been stabbed and beaten to death by a crowd of blacks near a segregated township southwest of here. Two unidentified blacks were said to have died in a subsequent police action pitting policemen against blacks armed with stolen police pistols and shotguns. The slaying of the two officers represented the first deaths of white policemen in the more than 16 months of political violence in South Africa. Attacks on Black Policemen Black policemen, by contrast, have frequently been the targets of attack by other blacks who accuse the officers of collaborating with white minority rule.

An obituary on Jan. 1 of the movie producer Sam Spiegel misattributed the authorship of the screenplay for ''On the Waterfront.'' It was written by Budd Schulberg alone, not with Irwin Shaw.

The BankAmerica Corporation today reported an unexpectedly large loss of $178 million in the fourth quarter of 1985 and, after a special meeting of its board of directors, eliminated the quarterly dividend on its common stock. The nation's second-largest banking company continued to be battered by huge loan losses, which for the quarter amounted to $527 million. The loss for the quarter would have been twice as large were it not for a $180 million pretax gain from the sale of the FinanceAmerica consumer finance subsidiary. Indeed, analysts had thought the special gain would allow the company to earn a small net profit, but the loan losses were much worse than most expectations.

Governor Kean began his second term today with a pledge to work for an improved economy, a cleaner environment and better educational opportunity. But he also criticized the Reagan Administration and the Congress for abdicating some of their authority to make budget cuts under a new law designed to achieve a balanced budget. During his 20-minute inaugural address to 2,000 people at the War Memorial Building near the Capitol, the 50-year-old Governor said: ''If our national government has lost its sense of purpose, then let us in New Jersey - and in all the states - show the way.'' Concerns of Minority Groups Mr. Kean, who, during his re-election campaign stressed that the national Republican Party needs to seek the support of minority groups if it hopes to win other statehouses, also addressed the concerns of those groups, particularly the higher unemployment rate for them than for whites in the state. That concern was a hallmark of his campaign for re-election, and he became the first Republican in New Jersey to win the majority of votes cast by members of minority groups in an election.