May 1, 1986

Markets The stock market suffered its biggest point decline ever as concern over the impact of the Soviet nuclear accident on an array of stocks prodded investors to take profits. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 41.91 points, to 1,783.98, losing 2.3 percent of its value. Utility stocks were hit hard, but price declines swept through virtually every sector of the market. Some analysts saw the day's downturn as an indication that the market was ready for a sell-off after its seven-month advance. [ Page D1. ] The Treasury plans to sell $27 billion of notes and bonds next week, a record, and it will discontinue its regular quarterly auction of 20-year bonds. Despite the size, dealers were optimistic that the securities would be absorbed without a sharp increase in interest rates. With rates having fallen so much in recent months, officials added they may reduce the minimum interest rate paid on certain savings bonds. [ D1. ] Yields on six-month C.D.'s fell to 6.85 percent in the week, as part of an overall decline. [ D19. ]

Stanley M. Friedman, the Bronx Democratic leader, used his acquaintance with a vice chancellor of the City University to get a three-hour teaching post that allowed him to protect his city pension rights, officials said yesterday. The vice chancellor, Julius C. C. Edelstein, who has since retired from the university administration, said in an interview that, at Mr. Friedman's request, he had arranged a meeting between Mr. Friedman and the top City University pension official after Mr. Friedman had given him the impression that he was ''very serious'' about teaching a full-fledged course on urban affairs. He said he subsequently discussed Mr. Friedman's pension problems with him, but that he learned only recently that Mr. Friedman had taught for only three hours in 1983. Review by Schwarz The pension transfer first came to light in March, prompting a review by the city's Corporation Counsel, Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr. Mr. Schwarz sent a letter to members of the New York City Teachers' Retirement Board last week, saying that ''it is not unreasonable to conclude that Mr. Friedman's certification from Lehman College was intended solely as a means of enabling Mr. Friedman to transfer'' his pension rights, and asked that his certification to the retirement system ''be considered a nullity.''

Major commercial banks are clearly committed to becoming powerful contenders in the world of investment banking. Now that first-quarter results are out, the banks have shown just how tantalizing the business of Wall Street can be. Of the 15 largest commercial banks, ranked by assets, 10 reported double-digit increases in per-share earnings for the quarter ended March 31. The average increase of all 15 was 14.1 percent, well above what many industrial corporations are reporting.

Governor Cuomo is beginning to speak out more openly on foreign affairs, drawing on a host of foreign policy experts to help refine his views. For the most part, Mr. Cuomo, who has spent all of his political life dealing with local and state matters, does not go into depth in commenting on foreign and national-security matters. On occasion, he has cut off intense questioning with a joke, leaving his exact position unclear. Several of the foreign policy experts with whom he has discussions from time to time - including ambassadors, advisers to Presidents, academics and career international-affairs analysts -said that was partly because his views were still being formed and that it was too soon to talk of a ''Cuomo foreign policy.'' Supported Attack on Libya Mr. Cuomo says he is reluctant to discuss foreign affairs because it makes him appear to be actively seeking the 1988 Democratic Presidential nomination, which he says he is not. Nevertheless, in response to increasing questions in his travels around the country, the Governor has stated a number of national-security and foreign policy positions in recent months.

EVEN in winter, when the birches have been stripped of their leaves and icy winds beat back all but the most fanatical joggers from the beach, the Strandlund complex in the affluent suburb of Gentofte here has the look of a resort or condominium community for the idle rich. With the first buds of spring, the impression is reinforced. It is, in fact, a housing project for the elderly built with public funds, the top of the line in a welfare state that promises free health services and institutional care to the aged. Basic choices in social planning and the use of public money for the care of the aged are in the hands of local councils in Denmark, most of which have less to spend than Gentofte. Therefore Strandlund is not typical in either design or setting: 210 units in two-story brick structures that are snug and secure in winter, light and leafy in summer, with windows facing what was once a rich shipowner's estate on the strait separating Denmark's western extremity from Sweden's southern tip.