The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 29

rr Dow Jones averaga 30 Industrials The Orlando Sentinel 1,300 1,280 1,220 1,180 Complete stock market listings, D-4. Tuesday, January 24, 1984 i ,) TiTT inn-" nut JANUARY TTTTT DECEMBER ono-SGrviC6 to test YryY Mo psi ph By Sharman Stein OF THE SENTINEL STAFF last between a year and two years. Ba- sically, it is a marketing study to de- termine user acceptance and The service will continue after the tri- al as long as there is a demand for Other states in the Southern Bell areay are scheduled to follow. The service is optional. Prices haveJ not yet been set, but Amidon said it is- Southern Bell's intention to make thejj cost reasonable enough for the aver-age customer.

It will work only be-s tween Southern Bell customers. Please see PHONE, D-2 Southern Bell requires permission from the Florida Public Service Commission before the service can begin. If all goes according to plan, signaling services should be available to 99 percent of Southern Bell customers in the Orlando area by early July 171,000 lines. Anybody who is missed the first time around should be included within a year. Orlando was chosen, along with Harrisburg, because it is a high-growth area already equipped with the most modern electronic switching systems.

The test here is scheduled to line. They call it "distinctive ringing." You may call it phone heaven. Unwanted callers get different treatment. With "Nuisance Call Reject," you can stop annoying people from trying again. After an obscene or bothersome call, just hang up and punch a few digits into the phone.

When the caller tries again, he will get a recording that says you will not receive his call. The phone company computer "remembers" the calling number. While has the technology down pat, Orlando area operations manager Bill Amidon cautioned that Orlando will be one of the first two cities nationwide to test a new phone company service designed to eliminate the annoyances from Alexander Graham Bell's invention. Beginning in July, Southern Bell customers in the Orlando area can subscribe to "signaling services." For example, customers will be able to program their phones to ring differently when certain callers are on the Stocks take worst tumble Air fare wars show no sign of cooling off By Suzy Hagstrom OF THE SENTINEL STAFF of new year ASSOCIATED PRESS i fti "i ii imiiiiiu. i 1 I i THE MARKETS Dow Jones average 1 244.45, down 1 4.66 NYSE Index 95.32, down .81 AMEX Index 224.48, down 2.23 OTC (ndex 280.20, down 4.21 Dow Jones bonds 71.13 down .12 Prime rate 1,1 Discount rate 8.5 Mortgage rates 12.5-14.5 Closing gold price $365.90 Closing silver price $8.04 Consumer Price Index 303.1 'Unadjusted HARRIS CORP.

PROFIT INCREASES. Harris Corp. of Melbourne Monday reported an 18 percent increase in profit for the second quarter ended Dec. 30 to $18.4 million, or 46 cents a share, from $15.6 million, or 40 cents a share, in the comparable quarter last year. Sales rose 8 percent to $472.2 million from $433.8 million.

Sales and profits for the year to date have been restated to reflect the acquisition of Lanier Business Products Inc. in the second quarter. Lanier was merged into Harris on a pooling-of-interests basis. The figures do not reflect earnings from its printing business, which was sold in April. Harris chairman Joseph Boyd said orders booked in the second quarter increased 30 percent over the year-earlier period and exceeded shipments.

Harris produces sophisticated high-technology and information processing equipment for government and commercial customers. W.R. GRACE CO. POLK COUNTY PLANS. W.R.

Grace Co. said Monday it plans to spend more than $28 million to acquire additional phosphate rock reserves in Central Florida and to improve certain facilities at its Florida chemical complex. The purchase of more than 16 million tons of phosphate rock reserves in Florida will boost the life span of Grace's existing mine in Polk County. The land is being acquired from Agrico Chemical Co. and is adjacent to Grace's Hooker's Prairie mine.

Grace also plans to improve facilities at its Bartow chemical complex to enhance the shipping and handling of phosphate rock. TREASURY BILLS ON THE RISE. Yields on short-term Treasury securities rose in Monday's auctions, reversing a two-week decline, officials-sajjd. The government sold about $12.8 billion in new T-billS Ky 'V3h. NEW YORK Stock prices took their sharpest drop of the new year Monday in selling' blamed on interest-rate worries, and technical market factors.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials fell 14.66 to 1,244.45, bringing its loss since Jan. 6 to 42.19. It was the largest daily decline for the average since it dropped 18.59 last Oct. 28. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange slowed to 82.01 million shares from 93.36 million Friday.

Analysts said a $3.8 billion rise in the money supply reported late Friday by the Federal Reserve came as a setback to whatever hopes existed among investors for a relaxation of credit policies. With Congress beginning a new session Monday, brokers also noted that expressions of concern about the federal budget deficit were back in the news. Technology issues showed some wide swings in response to earning reports. NBI fell Zyz to 24, and Prime Computer lost l's to 19'6 as those companies posted lower profits for their quarters ended last month. Among blue chips that contributed to the Dow Jones industrials' drop were International Business Machines, off 1 at 116; Merck, down 1 at 8854; Alcoa, down 1 at 45; and International Paper, off IVB at 55.

Declining issues outnumbered advances by more than 3 to 1. Airlines are prolonging price wars on routes between Florida and the Northeast. To encourage travel during the historically slow winter season, Eastern has established a round-trip price of $198 between Orlando and New York and between Tampa and New York. Another round-trip price of $218 applies to routes between Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Tampa or West Palm Beach. These fares have special restrictions.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said it would match Eastern's prices on routes from Orlando and Tampa to New York and Philadelphia. Pan American World Airways in New York and Air Florida System Inc. in Miami said they are studying the fares. Pan Am does not serve Philadelphia from Florida, however. Miami-based' Eastern classifies its rates under super-saver fares, which have special requirements such as buying tickets one week in advance.

A limited number of super-saver tickets are sold for each flight. Eastern's offer, which takes affect this week, does not have an expiration date. Eastern's new super-saver fare to Philadelphia compares with a former price of $349. However, its new round-trip rate to New York Please see FARES, D-2 GORDON WILLIAMSONSENTINEL T-blll yields i Pedal power half in three-month bills at an average discount rate of 8.92 percent, up from 8.82 percent, and half in. six-month bills at an average discount rate of 9.01 percent, up from 8.92 percent.

Monday's yields were the highest since the Jan. 3 level of 9.04 percent for three-month bills and the John Kibbey maneuvers through traf- sha and Donald LeMoine, partners in fic with passengers Helen and Cole- Intercontinental Pedicab Unlimited of man Holt in a pedicab, a new addi- Los Angeles. Riders pay nothing but tion to Winter Park's downtown dis- a tip to the driver. Drivers rent the trict. The service is operated by Mar- pedicabs for $25 a day.

16 January 19 27 December 1 Orange resort tax collections grow 7.2 Resort tax By Vicki Vaughan ppj. collections OF THE SENTINEL STAFF than two years ago by Laventhol and Horwath, a consulting firm. "I don't know how valid" the projection is, Locker said. "It's used for internal planning." Orange County's resort tax of 2 percent is being used to pay off the bonds sold to build the $50 million Orange County Convention and Civic Center. Monthly debt service on the convention center is $362,809.

Locker said the fact that November's resort tax collections fell below projections will not affect bond repayments or the operation of the center. In contrast to Orange County, the two other Central Florida counties that levy a resort tax had a decrease in November collections. Osceola County's collections were off 8.7 percent, and Volusia County's collections fell 1.3 percent. Officials in those counties blamed unseasonably Please see RESORT, D-2 Month Orange Osceola Volusia Nov. 1982 $490,194 $154,224 $90,293 Nov.

1983 525,499 141,778 89,108 Orange County's resort tax collections jumped 7.2 percent in November 1983, climbing to $525,499 compared with $490,194 in November 1982. Orange County comptroller Tom Locker said he was pleased at the level of collections because "it shows a little bit of growth." The November collections reversed what could have become an alarming trend. October 1983's resort tax was down slightly, the first time collections had dropped since the opening of Walt Disney World's Epcot Center on Oct. 1, 1982. November 1983 collections, however, were almost 16 percent below the $609,000 that Locker had estimated the tax would bring in.

But Locker cautions that his estimate is based on projections done more Changs CD rollover: Billions of dollars in search of a home Jan. 9 level of 9.10 percent for six-month bills. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors 9.28 percent for three-month and 9.6 percent for six-month bills. PANTRY PRIDE BUYING Pantry Pride Inc. in Fort Lauderdale said it has agreed to buy four Grand Union supermarkets and one Basics Food Warehouse in South Florida.

The five stores are among 49 in Florida that Grand Union Co. in Elmwood Park, N.J., plans to sell. Pantry Pride said it hopes to acquire the stores Feb. 11 but declined to specify the purchase price. Each store will be closed from six weeks to six months after the acquisition.

When hiring workers for the Grand Union stores, Pantry Pride said it will give preference to its own employees who were affected by numerous Panty Pride store closings in South Florida last fall. Some employees were laid off, and others were assigned part-time schedules. GENERAL MOTORS LOOKING AT JAGUARS. General Motors Corp. confirmed Monday that it has been examining whether to buy Jaguar, the British maker of sleek, high-priced sports cars.

However, GM said it has not made an offer for Jaguar. The British government is planning to sell off state-owned companies, including Jaguar. Jaguar Cars a subsidiary of the government-owned BL has experienced declining sales in recent years. However, its sales have recently improved, and Jaguar announced earlier this month that it had sold more than 29,000 cars around the world in 1983, its best year ever. COORS VS.

CORR'S NAME SUIT. Adolph Coors Brewing the Colorado brewer, is suing similarly named Corr's Natural Beverages Inc. because the smaller company's products are rapidly gaining ground in markets served by both, Corr's officials charged. Monday. But Coors officials say the two names are "visually and phonetically indistinguishable" to most consumers and that the soft-drink maker is profiting from the brewer's fame.

Robert Corr, head of Corr's Natural Beverages, says he will go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court "to defend the right to use my own last name on a line of natural beverages." A trial has been tentatively scheduled for March. Corr's firm markets eight naturally flavored sodas to groceries and health food stores. His strongest market: Colorado. Dick Marlowe BUSINESS respond rapidly to changes in market interest rates.

Because of those developments, E.F. Hutton concludes that the savings and loan industry is positioned to increase earnings by about 40 percent in 1984. The estimate, however, is based on E.F. Hutton's assumption that interest rates will be slightly lower on the average than they are now. On the other hand, the report warns that higher interest rates would dampen mortgage demand and that loan demand in general may not be as strong as expected.

The report also notes that a proposed accounting change would lower income for most How times change. Was it really only 22 months ago that president Richard Pratt of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board warned that about 900 savings and loan associations were in danger of running out of capital unless, interest rates dropped? Just two years after hitting the pits, savings and loan stocks could be a bargain. A rash of thrifts went public since early 1982 and a number of the stocks now are selling at well below the offering price. and that the market already may have peaked. Feeling that CD holders "made out very well" over the last 30 months, Salvigsen said the throng of generally conservative investors may well decide to make similar investments when the CDs mature.

"They may complain," said Salvigsen, "but will take the next best thing." And the next best thing may well turn out to be CDs at 1 1 percent. Meanwhile, savings and loan associations have turned themselves inside out since 1982, restructuring balance sheets and defining their roles as full-fledged financial institutions. In addition to backing away from fixed-rate mortgages in favor of adjustable mortgages, have become a different breed. With new powers such as adjustable-rate mortgages, variable commercial loans, consumer lending, trust services, second mortgages, joint venturing and real estate development the once-staid old thrifts are stepping out. According to a recent report of E.F.

Hutton, about 40 percent of the thrift industry's deposits are now in extremely short-term accounts that can It's rollover time in the fun-and-games world of certificates of deposit, and it's anybody's guess where bucks will stop. Back in early 1982, interest rates were soaring and hard-pressed financial institutions were selling 30-month CDs at astronomical rates of 15 percent to 16 percent. The rates proved irresistible, and the CDs were gobbled up like Super Bowl tickets. Those CDs begin maturing around March, and the investors will have the option of rolling them over at somewhere around 10 percent or 11 percent. Billions of dollars will be looking for a home, and the rollover has implications not only for commercial banks and savings and loan institutions but also for the stock market.

For example, Florida Federal Savings and Loan Association has said that if all its CD holders decide to roll them over at the rate of 11 percent, the savings in interest payouts would translate to somewhere between $8 million to $10 million. According to Buzz Rummel, vice president, such a rollover would send significant amounts to the Florida Federal bottom line. In fact, said Rum- mel, the rollover will "help a lot of institutions" that marketed the CDs heavily in early 1982. Sometimes, however, savers get spoiled by high-yielding certificates and are lured into common stocks when faced with renewing CDs at lower rates. But according to Stanley Sal-vigsen, the chief investment strategist for Merrill Lynch, that may not happen this time around.

In Orlando Friday, Salvigsen pointed out that the stocks also soared at the time in which many investors were holding the high-yielding CDs.