June 6, 1991

Remarks by Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, sent a chill through the credit markets yesterday, where prices of Treasury securities fell and interest rates rose. Attending an international monetary conference in Japan, Mr. Greenspan told reporters that the economy seemed to be bottoming out in the second quarter, and that as a result of rapid inventory liquidation, a stronger-than-expected recovery was increasingly likely.

STEADY customers at S. Scherer & Sons are expected to know: Tropical waterlilies are not sold there before the end of May, when pond temperatures reach 70 degrees. Which is not to say that some regulars at this Northport, L.I., aquatic nursery did not sweet-talk Walton Scherer, or Grandpa, as he is known, into letting them have one of his spectacular bloomers sooner. But then spring 1991 arrived hot and early. And the water garden business is booming this year.

In a victory for the seven regional Bell companies, the Senate today passed by an overwhelming margin legislation to allow the telephone companies to manufacture equipment. Although the measure faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives, today's 71-to-24 Senate vote is an important first step toward rewriting the historic antitrust court ruling that broke up A.T.& T. in l984.

As chief executive of the nation's largest public pension fund, Dale M. Hanson is an investor with an attitude. Under Mr. Hanson, the California Public Employees Retirement System, as the pension fund is formally known, recently assailed the ITT Corporation for the $30 million in compensation it gave its chairman, Rand V. Araskog, during the last four years when ITT's shares fell 10 percent.

THIS is the week to commune with contemporary teapots at museums in and around New York. A good number of these teapots were never intended to brew chamomile, but they are bound to cause constant comment among viewers. They have loose lids, these pots. "What's nice about some of the teapots here is that they deny their function," Garth Clark, a ceramic historian, was saying as he strolled through an exhibition and sale of 250 teapots, cups and accessories, which runs through Sunday at the American Craft Museum at 40 West 53d Street in Manhattan.