The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 61

Thursday, January 7, 1993 E-l A f' Markets at a glance Thursday't closing figurei. Change from previoui trading day's cloie. feaminer Judy Lane has been named director of alumni relations at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. E-2 mm DOW AVERAGE 3,268.69 SAP 500 430.73 30-YEAR T-BONDS 7.45 0.11 11 I dse wA fa "There is new management Resignation was not a surprise Chevron cuts 1992 income came on the heels of his father's and brother's departures as high officials of parent R.H. Macy and a day after the announcement of poor holiday results for the company's department stores in recession-ridden California.

"He rose with his father and he fell with his father," said retailing consultant and newsletter publisher Kurt Barnard, referring to the patronage of Finkelstein's father, Edward Finkelstein, former chairman of R.H. Macy. rabbi (mentor-father) was gone. It's a business in transition and you haven't seen the last of changes at Macy's for a whole host of reasons." Macy's West President Rudolph Borneo has assumed Finkelstein's duties while the company seeks a permanent successor. 51, became president in April 1989.

Speculation had been rife that Finkelstein, 38, would follow his father and brother, Mitchell, out of their well-paid positions with the company. Macy's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization just under a year ago and has continued to post big losses. Finkelstein made $553,286 uT salary and other cash compensation in the fiscal year ended last August. His wife, Susan Finkelstein, remains vice president of special services for Macy's West-She made $95,000 in cash compen- See MACY'S, E-2 LET'S GET -X ltMj i i 'P- now, and he (Daniel) is part of the old regime." Walter K. Levy, a retail management consultant, said: "Finkelstein good, bad or indifferent was vulnerable be- Finkelstein cause of what transpired, and his DIGITAL i 1 uSt, composition software.

Kodak DCS 200 in Adobe Photoshop Radius Rocket card. the MacWorld Expo This photo was taken with a digital camera and was manipulated 2.5 on a Mac Quadra 950 with Those products are on display at at Moscone Center. San Francisco performance artist Pamela takes part in a multimedia presentation Wednesday by Opcode Systems Inc. The artist called up images to the screen and sounds stored in the computer by singing into a microphone. The Macintosh was running Opcode's By Louis Trager OF THE EXAMINER STAFF Macy's watchers were anything but shocked by the resignation of Daniel B.

Finkelstein as chairman of San Francisco-based Macy's West. The announcement Wednesday Mailer realigns top brass 2 resign from helm at Williams-Sonoma EXAMINER STAFF REPORT Williams-Sonoma the San Francisco-based retailer and catalogue merchandiser of quality kitchenware and home and garden products, has realigned its senior management. The purpose, said chief financial officer James E. nil ey, is to "increase efficiency and accountability. Riley said the firm has been working to get expenses in line with revenues.

In November, the company trimmed 20 employees at its headquarters. Revenues for the year that end ed in February 1992 were $312 mil lion. Riley said Wednesday that he expects revenues for the current fiscal year to be close to $340 mil lion. "We had a very good Christmas," he said, "our best since 1990." cut resignations were an nounced Wednesday from Kent Larson, 53, who has been the company's president and chief operating officer for the past four years, and senior vice president Glen Senk, 35, who has been general merchandising manager for 18 months. W.

Howard Lester, 56, Wil- See WILLIAMS, E-2 New jobless claims drop to 4-year low WASHINGTON The num ber of Americans filing new claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 40,000 to 291,000 in late December, the lowest level seen in almost four years, the Labor De partment said Thursday. Economists had expected a slight rise in initial state claims to 336,000 for the week ended Dec. 26 from 331,000 the prior week. Many states attributed the drop to a shortened work week over the Christmas holiday. But seasonal' adjustments are supposed to remove that holiday factor.

The unexpectedly sharp drop brought the closely watched four-week moving average for initial claims, a more reliable indicator of trends in the labor market to 332,500 in the week ended Dec. 26, down from 341,000 the prior week. The last time the moving aver age was this low waa on Sept. 30, 1989, when it was 328,750. Many economists said that if new claims remain below the 300,000 mark, it would be a sign that the labor market is expanding.

California had the biggest de cline, with 11,930 fewer people fil ing claims. Chevron Corp. said Wednesday it will adopt new accounting standards that will cut previously reported 1992 income by $540 million or $1.58 a share. The San Francisco-based energy giant said it would take a charge against first-quarter 1992 earnings of $625 million or $1.82 a share due to the adoption of new accounting standards for retirement benefits for income taxes. Chevron said the charge would be partly offset by an accounting benefit of $85 million or 25 cents a share for the first nine months of 1992.

The new standard on retirement benefits requires that the costs of future benefits be taken into account as they are earned by employees, rather than when the benefits are paid. Bechtel wins huge Florida airport job Engineering and construction giant Bechtel Corp. said Thursday it had received a contract to manage the $2 billion, 10-year redevelopment and expansion of Miami International Airport and five surrounding aviation facilities in Dade County, Fla. The contract for an undisclosed amount was awarded to the Aviation Services unit of Bechtel Civil Co. by the Dade County Aviation Department.

Other airports covered by the contract are Opa-locka, Opa-locka West, Dade-Collier, Tamiami and Homestead airports, where runways, taxiways, terminals and other support facilities will be up- graded. San Francisco-based Bechtel said its partners in the wenture include Day Zimmerman a Philadelphia-based engineering 'and construction firm, and Spillis Candela Partners a Dade County architectural firm. Work is to begin Feb. 1. Taurus beats Accord for '92 sales title Ford's Taurus edged out Honda's Accord as America's hottest-selling car last year, Ford said Wednesday, marking the first time since 1989 a U.S.

automaker won the title. The bruising sales contest between the two automakers added some drama to an otherwise lackluster year for the auto industry in which light vehicle sales rose only modestly. Ford said it sold 409,751 Tauruses in the 1992 calendar year, compared with 393,477 Accords sold by Honda. In 1991, Americans bought nearly 100,000 more Accords than Tauruses. A confluence of factors, including buy-American sentiment and Ford incentives, were credited for the Taurus victory.

Mutual funds outpace money markets, CDs Mutual funds outperformed other popular investment vehicles last year, thanks to a fourth-quarter surge, an authoritative survey said Wednesday. The 1,003 general equity funds tracked by Lipper Analytical Services Inc. were up 8.9 percent for the year. Virtually all that gain came in the final quarter, when the funds advanced 9.04 percent. While mutual fund returns outpaced money market funds and the yield on certificates of deposits, they still were only slightly better than the Dow Jones industrial average, which rose 7.4 percent for the year and 1.71 percent for the quarter.

The performance of the funds, which for the last five years have yielded an average 15 percent return, was considered below average, Lipper said. When another 410 specialty funds are included, the performance is even more mediocre. All 1,413 equity funds, including those that invest only in specific industries or regions, were up 6.9 percent for the quarter and 6 percent for the year. Money Talks is on assignment jHptjpS3 I jc I SJF. software maker is sold WordPerfect buys Grammatik firm By Tom Abate EXAMINER TECHNOLOGY WRITER Underscoring the trend toward consolidation in the software industry, a San Francisco company has been bought by WordPerfect Corp.

of Utah. Reference Software International, which sells a grammar-checking program called Grammatik, was sold to WordPerfect for $19 million. The proceeds will be split among a dozen shareholders, including three venture capital firms, which own 95 percent of Reference. Left in limbo by the deal announced Wednesday are 39 people who work for Reference in San Francisco. They do sales and other tasks that may not be needed as Grammatik is absorbed into WordPerfect's product line.

"We have to sort out where the redundancies are and work out a smooth transition," said Don Emery, the San Francisco State University professor who founded Reference. The company's history is a primer in the difficulties facing software startups. In 1985, Emery See WORDPERFECT, E-3 Retailers fear return to frugality Consumers may tighten belts after heavy Christmas spending By Joyce M. Rosenberg ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK Christmas 1992 was indeed a success for the nation's retailers, who released sales figures Thursday that showed the holiday season was even stronger than some anticipated. But while the December results confirmed estimates that this Christmas was the retail industry's best since 1988, storeowners were still cautious and uncertain about how long their good fortune might last.

"December sales were the strongest we have seen in several years and results ran ahead of expectations in virtually all areas of our business," said Allen Questrom, chairman of Federated Department Stores Inc. However, he said, we still expect some cooling off in levels of consumer activity in the first quar- See SALES, E-2 km Apple fans flock to MacWorld 60,000 may visit show by Saturday By Tom Abate EXAMINER TECHNOLOGY WRITER Neither rain nor chill nor long lines could keep Apple enthusiasts from crowding Moscone Center Wednesday for the opening of the MacWorld Expo. By the time this annual show pulls up stakes Saturday, some 60,000 people are expected to pay $30 or $90 to see the latest in hardware and software for the Macintosh. Among those waiting in line for admission was Teresa Ordonez of -Walt Disney Co. She paid $90, which entitled her to visit the show's conferences, in addition to booths featuring products from some 500 companies.

A sales agent who books Disney films into local movie halls, Ordonez flew up from Burbank with a mission. "We want to be able to visualize the theaters on the Mac, see how many screens they have," said Or donez. Harlan Bloomer, a professor of See MACWORLD, E-3 Time ripe conference opens here Monday INVESTORS AND executives are gearing up for the first, the biggest and the bad-dest investment conference of the year, which opens Monday at the St. Francis Hotel. More than 143 companies are signed up to present their cases at -4.

Hundreds of exhibits and thousands of visitors descend on Moscone Center for the annual MacWorld Expo, which runs through Saturday. for biotech stocks 2t EXAMINER I OHS QULKER tive paints a bright picture at the podium. Many took a beating last year when biotech stocks began to dive after a couple of very strong years but they're counting on a gradually improving market and some long-term strength in the sector. "It's like 1991-92 was the party. Mid-1992 was the hangover.

Now, we're sitting up watching television and drinking coffee," said Tim Wil- See BIOTECH, E-2 the Hambrecht Quist event, be fore an audi (Ul Oil HUUl enceof at least SAI 1,500 investors, venture capi-LEHRMAN talistsand money managers. They'll likely be a sober but upbeat bunch. Dorine -I over each company's stats while the chief execu- INSIDE BIOTECH.