January 30, 1992

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation, after reporting a loss of $638.1 million for the fourth quarter, said yesterday that it would cut its work force by 6,500 and stop paying its annual stock dividend. The job cuts at the nation's second-largest steelmaker will amount to about 25 percent of the work force. The reductions will be made over the next two years through layoffs, early retirement programs and sales of parts of the company.

The Cut in Tax Withholding The President's order lowering withholding will inject more than $2 billion a month into the economy. But analysts warn taxpayers to be wary of a trap. Article and table, page A17. Weapons Jobs at Risk . . .

"I'LL take it," a tall, elegant man whispered before slipping away into the crowd at the opening of the Winter Antiques Show in Manhattan. "He'll take it," Blanche Greenstein echoed to her partner, Thomas K. Woodard.

More than 60 American oil industry executives who came here seeking ways to invest in Russia's oil industry ran into a raft of obstacles this week. An essential obstacle lay in the struggle over control of the republic's crude oil. Another was the absence of some important people who were supposed to be there. Yet another was the lack of stable policies to govern foreign investments in oil, which Russian officials acknowledged might be difficult to achieve.

The budget that President Bush sent Congress today is essentially his campaign manifesto, and it delineates how starkly his views differ from those of his Democratic opponents, in Congress and on the campaign trail. With minor exceptions, the new budget underscores Mr. Bush's intention of maintaining the same course the country has been on for the last dozen years, one in which the Government uses tax and spending policy as little as possible to guide the nation's economic affairs.