April 16, 1986

When hundreds of securities analysts showed up last month at Citicorp, they spent several hours learning not about automatic teller machines or corporate lending trends but about the bank's role in investment banking. Citicorp and a host of other major money center banks these days ranging from Morgan Guaranty Trust to the First Chicago Corporation are flocking to the expanding world of securities trading and deal origination. They are redoubling their efforts in these areas both at home and abroad as a bevy of new securities not forbidden to bank activity come into vogue and as traditional banking activities become less attractive. The new focus, which pits commercial banks against Wall Street firms in the search for talent, comes despite the continued prohibition under the Glass-Steagall Act against corporate bond and equity underwriting in the United States by commercial banks. Innovations Are Cited ''We tell our people that success in investment banking is just not dependent on realizing greater liberation of Glass-Steagall,'' said George Vojta, an executive vice president for investment banking at the Bankers Trust Company. ''Many of the financial innovations coming into the market have nothing to do with Glass-Steagall.''

Magazines, like other media properties, have recently been selling for astronomical prices as growth-minded publishers elect to expand through acquisitions. With the cost and casualty rate of start-ups so high, even some troubled publications are attracting widespread interest. Scientific American, the venerable, scholarly monthly, is a particular example. Despite its years-long weak financial picture, its for-sale sign is intriguing some would-be buyers.

Roman Catholic leaders in the United States believe that Pope John Paul II's weekend visit to a Rome synagogue will foster important changes in Catholic attitudes about Jews and undermine lingering anti-Semitism. Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago, one of the American Catholic Church's most respected figures, said the embrace between the Pope and Elio Toaff, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, ''was a symbolic gesture indicating on the church's part a clear end to centuries of discrimination and persecution of the Jews and a deeper appreciation and affection for our Jewish brothers and sisters.'' 'A Rather Deep Impact' Dr. Eugene J. Fisher, director of Catholic-Jewish relations for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the Pope's visit demonstrated that a Jewish house of worship ''is a place the Pope would visit and honor and respect, so it should have a rather deep impact on slowing down anti-Semitism and any ideas Christians might have of viewing Judaism from a posture of superiority rather than of respect and dialogue.''

Industrial production plunged five-tenths of 1 percent in March for the second consecutive substantial decline, the Government said today, citing weakness in oil drilling, auto manufacturing and steel production. The March decline followed a drop, based on revised figures, of seven-tenths of 1 percent in February, the steepest setback in output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities since the end of the last recession, the Federal Reserve Board said. In both months, much of the weakness came in the petroleum industry, which has slashed exploratory drilling because of the steep declines in world oil prices.

THERE are, according to the latest tabulation of the American Medical Association, more than 75,000 American physicians who are women. They are found not only in specialties traditionally associated with women -pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology and general practice - but also increasingly in surgery, urology, orthopedics and other more prestigious fields in which their entry and advancement had been discouraged. Their numbers in medical schools are growing steadily, too. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, of the 16,268 students who entered the nation's 127 medical schools last fall, 33.9 percent were women. By contrast, in 1969, when there were 101 schools, women accounted for only 9.1 percent of the entering class of 10,422. After a century of struggle, then, it might seem that women's place in medicine was secure, that sexual harassment and discrimination were problems of the past.