August 25, 1986

A bill still under debate that would permit out-of-state banks to acquire Texas banks as soon as Jan. 1 is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Mark White Jr. before the end of this week, according to bank executives, lawyers and analysts here. Yet, many are divided over whether alliances will be formed quickly, as happened in Arizona and Ohio when those states opened their borders to bank takeovers. Some believe it will take several weeks, or perhaps months, before big bank holding companies begin to play their hand. ''Over time there will be negotiations and then deals made, but I don't expect a rush to occur,'' said James L. Sexton, the Texas Bank Commissioner. ''Eventually, I see some large organizations changing hands.''

The jurors in the trial of John J. McLaughlin, the former president of the city's sealth and Hspitals Cororporation, arrived for their fifth day of deliberations early yesterday - singing the old Drifters hit ''Under the Boardwalk.'' They left for church a short time later singing the Shirelles' ''Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?'' As they determine the fate of Mr. McLaughlin, who is charged with 15 counts of larceny, bribery, forgery, tax evasion and filing of false documents, the jury of eight women and four men, sequestered since Wednesday evening, has become the talk of the Criminal Court Building at 100 Centre Street in lower Manhattan.

The afternoon seemed to drift away slowly, turning from a day of promise to just another untimely defeat in the Bronx. The Yankees lost another game and another chance to gain some ground yesterday. Worse, they also lost their indispensable third baseman. Mike Pagliarulo cracked his 28th home run and added a single and a triple, but his day ended abruptly in the eighth inning. He hit a routine pop fly, then hobbled noticeably off the field and into the dugout. When the day was done, and the Yanks had completed an inept performance by losing to the Oakland A's, 11-4, Pagliarulo conceded that he had been playing for one week on a sore left hamstring.

TWO questions were on the mind of everyone at the seminar. ''Can one live in New York without parting with all but a tiny fraction of one's admittedly lofty salary?'' a young employee asked. Another wondered, ''Can you raise a family in New York and have 'normal' children?'' A qualified ''yes'' was the answer to both questions from Roberta Seret, a consultant who works for corporations relocating executives to New York.

Even if interest rates drop further in coming days, capital spending, which has been depressed, is unlikely to revive any time soon, business analysts say. Interest rates, including the prime rate used by banks to set rates for loans to most medium-sized and small corporate borrowers will fall,the analysts say, in response to the Federal Reserve's decision last week to again lower its discount rate, the rate it charges on loans to financial institutions. But with factories working at roughly 78 percent of capacity and with the effects of the proposed tax changes uncertain, they say, a drop in rates alone will hardly matter when it comes to business executives' decisions to invest in new plants and equipment. Indeed, executives have repeatedly revised downward their spending plans even as rates have dropped steadily this year. Last fall, for instance, executives told the Commerce Department that they planned to increase spending by 2.4 percent in 1986 over 1985. By last spring, the figure had slipped to 2.3 percent, and in June respondents were predicting a rise of only two-tenths of 1 percent. By comparison, spending rose 9 percent in 1985 and 16.3 percent in 1984.