March 22, 1990

LEAD: The deeply troubled Tokyo stock market went through its most volatile day ever today as the plummeting value of the yen and Government efforts to strengthen it set share prices swinging wildly and left investors and market professionals stunned.

LEAD: In a decision that could upset much of President Bush's savings and loan bailout, a Federal judge ruled today that the appointments of the nation's top savings and loan regulator and his immediate predecessor were unconstitutional and that their actions were invalid.

LEAD: ''A friend of mine came into this factory the other day and said, 'Boy, it's changed; it's hardly recognizable,' '' said Laszlo Nogradi, general manager of the Schwinn Bicycle Company's 14-month-old joint venture in Hungary.

LEAD: It might strike cynics as paradoxical to hear David Rockefeller complain about capitalistic greed, but with communism - and New York City's streets - disintegrating, he wondered, what kind of example are Americans and New Yorkers setting for the rest of the world?

LEAD: In a significant advance for the cultivation of one of the world's most important timber and fodder crops, scientists say they have coaxed bamboo plants to flower in the laboratory, a feat never before managed. Bamboo in the field can take more than a century to flower and produce seeds.