LEAD: The dollar surged yesterday, ignoring the negative economic news in the widening trade deficit and another round of central bank intervention.

Dollar Up In Spite of Trade Data

LEAD: The South Street Seaport would take a big step northward, with the transformation of two gritty old waterfront blocks into a fancy new stretch of shops, offices and apartments, under an agreement announced yesterday between New York City and two private developers.

Wave of Growth Planned at South Street Seaport

LEAD: One day after Gov. Mario M. Cuomo made public his $46.6 billion state spending plan, many state lawmakers and local government officials said that if the plan were enacted, New Yorkers would be spared increases in their state taxes only to see them show up on their local tax bills.

Officials Fear Shift of Taxes From Albany

LEAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission and Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. are at an impasse over how to settle the charges of securities law violations against the firm, a person directly involved in the case said yesterday.

S.E.C.-Drexel Negotiations Are Said to Be at Impasse

LEAD: Each day hundreds of people stop briefly just inside the reservation here near the shore of Lake Erie. Most are truck drivers or cigarette smokers looking for bargains.

Reservation's Taxes May End Detours for Cheap Gas

LEAD: Mayor Xavier Suarez said today that he regretted his handling of an incident that helped touch off race-related violence that continued this evening for a third night, and he issued a public apology to the police.

Miami Mayor Apologizes to Police For Actions at Scene of Disorder

LEAD: The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed to $19.26 a barrel yesterday, its highest level since November 1987. The 31-cent increase in the spot contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was spurred in large part by sharply higher gasoline prices.

Gasoline Demand and Oil Price Rise

LEAD: ''YOU'RE the top! You're the Colosseum,'' the song lyric goes. But the Colosseum stands only 160 feet tall, and the forgotten-but-not-gone New York Coliseum is a mere 102. With apartment buildings climbing 50, 60 and even 70 stories, the top is closer to the clouds than the Romans or Cole Porter ever dreamed.

Life at the Top: Even the Weather Is Different

LEAD:  THE ECONOMY  The Federal Reserve said it would allow banking companies to raise money for corporations in the bond market. The decision breaks down part of the wall that has separated banking and the securities business since 1933 - the Glass-Steagall Act. [ Page A1. ] The nation's trade deficit widened substantially in November, to $12.5 billion, as exports declined and imports surged to the second-highest level on record, the Commerce Department reported.

BUSINESS DIGEST

LEAD: If the new offerings here at the 89th National Housewares Show are an indication of public sentiment, Americans are yearning for products to organize their homes and home offices.

Housewares Show: Out With Clutter

LEAD: The Supreme Court, ending a year of turmoil in the lower Federal courts, today upheld the new Federal system for sentencing convicted criminals.

JUSTICES UPHOLD DISPUTED SYSTEM OF U.S. SENTENCING

LEAD: Stock prices rose sharply yesterday as the Dow Jones industrial average reached another post-crash high.

Dow Gains 24.11; Rising Dollar Helps

LEAD: For Keith J. Esmark, general manager of the Holiday Inn here, dealing with the lowest unemployment rate in the metropolitan region means doing everything from paying bounties for new workers to bringing in employees from as far away as Staten Island and Easton, Pa. At times, short of staff, he has even had to cook breakfast for guests.

Bounties and Vans: Jersey Copes With Labor Shortage

LEAD: ''Come Blow Your Horn'' is the name of a Neil Simon comedy, but in New York City it might as well be an invitation.

Metro Matters; Now Hear This! Or Is the Honking Too Loud?

LEAD: The nation's trade deficit widened substantially in November, to $12.5 billion, as exports fell and imports surged to their second-highest level, the Commerce Department reported today.

U.S. Trade Gap Widens Sharply As Imports Soar

LEAD: Breaching a wall that has separated banking and the securities business for more than 50 years, the Federal Reserve Board said yesterday that it would allow banking companies to raise money for corporations in the bond market.

FEDERAL RESERVE ACTS TO LET BANKS INTO BOND TRADING

LEAD: President-elect George Bush opened a five-day celebration of his inauguration tonight, saying he wants Americans to do more for one another than they have done before and dramatizing the idea with a fireworks display of several thousand points of light across the sky.

Lights! Action! Inauguration Is Under Way

LEAD: Despite disturbances in Miami, fans, players and the N.F.L. are trying to keep Super Bowl preparations as normal as possible. Page A18.

Business as Usual

LEAD: Kidder, Peabody & Company will shortly announce a major reorganization that includes the appointment of a new chief executive, Wall Street analysts and executives said yesterday.

Kidder, Peabody Reorganization Expected

LEAD: A little more than two years ago, welfare investigators portrayed the home of Abigail Cortez as a ''warm and nurturing environment.'' On Dec. 14, 1988, her 5-year-old daughter, Jessica, was dead of a broken neck, and Mrs. Cortez and her companion, Adrian Lopez, were charged with murder.

Killing of a Child: How the System Failed

LEAD: Fast-food marketing experts, always trying to shrink the time and distance between a man and his meal, are rapidly discovering a new competitive wrinkle.

The Fast-Food Market's New Lure

LEAD:  Baker Says Central America Is Most Pressing Issue

INSIDE

LEAD: NORMAN BROSTERMAN does not consider himself a toy collector. ''These things are much more than toys,'' he said, referring to the 265 sets of children's architectural building blocks that crowd the closets of his Upper West Side apartment. ''They represent the whole history of architecture. You have to wonder which architects played with which ones when they were kids.

Building Dreams With Toy Blocks

LEAD: In a major price-fixing settlement, the Panasonic Company has agreed to return as much as $16 million to consumers to end charges by New York State that it threatened retailers with a loss of supply unless Panasonic products were sold at prices dictated by the company.

Panasonic to Return $16 Million to Consumers

LEAD: Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and other Polish leaders threatened to resign to force the adoption of a resolution opening the way for legalization of the Solidarity trade union, a Government press agency report said late Wednesday.

January 19, 1989

Headlines from January 19, 1989

Dollar Up In Spite of Trade Data

Wave of Growth Planned at South Street Seaport

Officials Fear Shift of Taxes From Albany

S.E.C.-Drexel Negotiations Are Said to Be at Impasse

Reservation's Taxes May End Detours for Cheap Gas

Billboard 200

Don't Be Cruel

Appetite For Destruction

Open Up And Say...Ahh!

New Jersey

Hysteria

Historical Context for January 19, 1989