January 24, 1991

THE ECONOMY Foreign airlines will be allowed to invest more heavily in domestic carriers, Transportation Secretary Skinner announced. He said the changes would help preserve competition. One result is that KLM will be allowed to retain 49 percent of Northwest. [ Page A1. ] Airlines are abandoning the discounts Eastern had offered. [ D5. ] Business activity was falling in most parts of the country in the weeks leading up to the war, with little sign that the contraction was being blunted by lower interest rates, a Fed survey showed. [ D1. ] Martha R. Seger will resign from the Fed within two months. [ D16. ] The Administration asked Congress for open-ended backing for the savings rescue. [ D2. ] COMPANIES Texaco's fourth-quarter earnings jumped 35 percent, it said, while Ashland Oil said it lost $11 million. [ D1. ] The first legal clones of the Apple Macintosh will be possible, a start-up company says, with technology close to completion. [ D1. ] The Buick Park Avenue's strong sales recently have encouraged G.M. in its efforts to recapture customers. [ D1. ] CBS said its $2 billion offer to buy back 44 percent of its stock had attracted about twice as many shares as it wanted. [ D3. ] Disney is reportedly negotiating to acquire MTM Entertainment and a minority stake in its parent, TVS Entertainment. [ D3. ] Audi introduced its "Take Control" ad campaign, to be broadcast on radio and in two spots during the Super Bowl. [ D3. ] Bankers Trust said its earnings for the quarter were up 21.7 percent from the period the year before. [ D4. ] Southwestern Bell said quarterly earnings fell 10 percent because of one-time charges. [ D8. ] Lotus Development and Equifax said they had canceled plans to sell a data base on 120 million U.S. consumers. [ D4. ] INTERNATIONAL Many large corporations have banned travel to the Middle East and greatly curtailed other international travel. [ D1. ] Helmut Kohl raised the possibility of lifting German taxes, citing Bonn's increased contribution to the war effort. [ D5. ] The war could have serious environmental consequences for the Mideast, although most scientific opinion is that burning of Kuwait's oilfields would not affect the global climate. [ D6. ] MARKETS The price of oil edged up as traders worried about the possibility of Israeli retaliation. Crude rose 16 cents, to $22.04. [ D6. ] Nervous stock traders touched off heavy selling late in the day on war reports, but the Dow still managed to gain 15.84, to 2,619.06. [ D10. ] A former rock climber is taking on the Big Board with a computer designed to replace floor specialists. [ D1. ] Treasury notes and bonds rose in fairly active trading, largely on comments by Greenspan that suggested an easing soon. [ D16. ] The dollar was driven lower by signs that U.S. interest rates may be headed down as German rates hold steady. [ D17. ] Silver futures prices plunged to new 15-year lows as hopes for a quick resolution to the war receded. [ D17. ] TODAY'S COLUMNS The S.E.C. is preparing procedures to handle many cases within the agency that previously had been taken to Federal courts. Stephen Labaton: Business and the Law. [ D2. ] An indictment that can only increase investor fears of trading low-priced over-the-counter stocks was announced by New York prosecutors. Floyd Norris: Market Place. [ D10. ] San Francisco joined a growing number of local governments that restrict alcohol and tobacco advertising in public places. Advertising. [ D20. ]

NOW wait a minute. They tell you something about the Industrial Revolution? They tell you about union solidarity? They tell you what booze to drink?

New Jolt to Soviet Economy Moscow's abrupt withdrawal of large ruble bills from circulation caused havoc, anxiety and confusion over how to trade them in. Page A3. Stanford Refund to U.S. Already stung by controversy, the school said it would refund $500,000 in research money used for upkeep of university-owned homes. Page A16.

To produce graduates who can meet the new academic standards that the City University of New York is planning to impose on its students, the city's high schools must start teaching students far better than they do now, education experts said yesterday. Only 15 New York public high schools, virtually all of them specialized academic schools or local schools in relatively affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods, now graduate many students who could meet the kind of standards that CUNY is contemplating.

A television-page article on Tuesday about cutbacks in the networks' live coverage of the Persian Gulf war quoted an executive, "speaking on the condition of anonymity," who accused CNN of "getting a lot of things wrong." In fairness, criticism should not have taken the form of an unattributed quotation. And the organization being criticized should have received an opportunity to respond. When asked for commment, Ed Turner, executive vice president of CNN, said the criticism was inaccurate and added, "It goes with the territory of being ahead on a story."