October 26, 1990

The fourth-largest credit-card business in the country was put up for sale yesterday. Its owner, the largest banking company in Maryland, is raising cash to compensate for heavy losses on commercial real estate loans. The sale by the MNC Financial Corporation of Baltimore will be an opportunity, analysts predicted, for large industrial companies like the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the General Electric Company to dramatically increase their activity in a business dominated by banks.

A 200-member Indian tribe in eastern Connecticut has reached a compact with the state permitting casino gambling on its reservation, including blackjack, poker and roulette, at whatever stakes the tribes chooses, beginning as early as next July. The tribe, the Mashantucket Pequots of Ledyard, is the first American Indian tribe east of the Mississippi to reach a gambling agreement under a Federal law signed in 1988 by President Reagan, and could be the first in the nation to actually begin full casino-style gambling.

THE BUDGET MARATHON Budget negotiators said they had agreed on a way to shield the elderly from a heavy burden of Medicare cost-sharing. [ Page A1. ] With the end of the ordeal in sight, bleary-eyed lawmakers tied the last knots in the package in preparation for votes today. [ A20. ] Tax specialists said the plan's purported burden on the rich is a misrepresentation. [ A21. ] The agreement might make the hard times engulfing the U.S. economy slightly harder next year, economists say. [ A21. ] THE ECONOMY Airlines have begun cracking down on bargain hunters who bend rules stated on the ticket. [ A1. ] The former owner of a Texas savings institution was indicted on 37 charges involving bank fraud, misapplication of funds and conspiracy to defraud regulators. [ D1. ] A former Federal savings examiner recounted how she was harassed by superiors and ultimately dismissed for raising questions about the condition of a large S.& L. [ D1. ] The Senate Ethics Committee ordered an inquiry into the release of documents related to the Senators linked to Keating. [ A24. ] A former Drexel salesman testified that Michael Milken once told him that securities owned by the firm were sometimes secretly held by Columbia Savings. [ D1. ] COMPANIES The nation's fourth-largest credit-card business was put up for sale. Its owner, MNC Financial, has heavy real estate losses. [ D1. ] Unisys reported a loss of $356.8 million and said it would eliminate 5,000 jobs. [ D3. ] American's chairman said he would have paid more than United to get Pan Am's routes between the U.S. and London. [ D5. ] USAir and Delta reported large third-quarter losses, but UAL posted a healthy profit. [ D6. ] Laventhol & Horwath told its nearly 3,500 employees that they would have to take a 10 percent pay cut for three months. [ D6. ] An ad in The New York Review of Books has strained relations between Random House and Farrar, Straus. [ D20. ] The newspaper deliverers' union struck The Daily News last night, setting off a climactic labor confrontation with the management of the financially ailing paper, Other unions said they would honor the picket lines. [ A1. ] Philips said it would slash 35,000 to 45,000 jobs to bolster profits and improve competitiveness. [ D3. ] INTERNATIONAL The U.S. has proposed a relaxation of export controls on high-performance computers. [ D2. ] MARKETS Oil was up sharply for the second day, continuing on an erratic path. Crude closed at $34.25, up $3.17. [ D1. ] Stocks slid in the wake of rising oil prices and renewed war jitters, with the Dow off 20.05, to 2,484.16. [ D8. ] Treasury securities prices rose slightly, and long-term interest rates dipped. [ D16. ] The dollar rebounded on world currency markets. [ D17. ] Gold prices continued to climb. [ D17. ] TODAY'S COLUMNS Legislators who vote for the budget legislation will do so holding their noses. Leonard Silk: Economic Scene. [ D2. ] Fidelity Investments will refuse buy orders if it believes the buyers are following a market-timing service. Floyd Norris: Market Place. [ D8. ] Some of the biggest black-owned ad agencies and media companies have formed a trade organization. Advertising. [ D20. ]

OF all the silly images to be seen in American movies from the 1950's, few are more ridiculous than the 20-year-old Michael Landon made up for the title role in the 1957 cult film "I Was a Teen-Age Werewolf." Nowadays, the sight of Mr. Landon terrorizing the campus of Rockdale High School wearing khakis, a basketball jacket and a fanged werewolf mask doesn't so much conjure horror as suggest a Halloween reveler having a tantrum the morning after trick or treat because his head mask has stuck to his neck.

Mayor David N. Dinkins's efforts to cut the city's budget by more than $1 billion ran into roadblocks on several fronts yesterday. The stiffest resistance came from Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez, who stood by his resolve to provide only $50 million in cuts instead of the $94 million he was asked to make. He did so even after Mayor Dinkins made an early morning phone call to the Board of Education President, Gwendolyn C. Baker, that prompted her to call an emergency meeting of the board to discuss the possibility of intervening in the dispute.