European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 6, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday december 6, 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 17 s s it a \ a a a. Is today s tip the american Public has one word to say about what will be missing at sales counters this Christmas season  seven in 10 adults in an associated press poll taken last weekend said they done to expect to use credit to pay for gifts this Christmas season. Only 27 percent said they expect to use store credit a Bank card Loans or extended payments to help pay for presents. Yet 39 percent of All respondents and is percent of those with credit cards said they used credit cards for gifts sometime this year. A this Christmas is not going to be very Jolly. Its a Bare Bones tight isted Short list Christmas a said Donald Ratajczak director of the economic forecasting Center at Georgia state University in Atlanta. Conversion rates London up thursdays rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in dollars Gold was quoted at s364.25 an ounce Silver at $4.04. British pound.17725 17930 German Mark.1.6110 1.5915 French franc.5.4840 5.4545 dutch guilder.1 -8080 1.7895 belgian franc.33.26 32.89 italian lira.1.212.40 1,206.70 Swiss franc.1 -4265 1.4150 greek drachma.182.85 182.00 turkish lira.5.045.30 5,033.70 saudi arabian riyal.3.7494 3.7493 Spanish peseta.102.58 102.11 portuguese escudo.142.40 141.15 Canadian dollar.1.1335 1.1357 austrian schilling.11.2800 11.2260 norwegian krone.6.3550 6.2880 danish krone.6.2360 6.2025 these Are commercial rates and can be related Only to the use of foreign currency by . Forces for official business. The Only official rate concerns the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be 1.56 through Friday based on thursdays noontime  Pont plans further moves to Cut costs by the new York times Dupont co., hoping to make a substantial gain in profits is planning a new round of Belt tightening and productivity improvements. The program which is still being prepared comes in the Wake of a july plan to Cut costs by $1 billion by the end of next year and reduce 5,500 jobs. Unlike that Effort the latest plan will have no targets for cutting costs or the work Force said Edgar s. Woolard jr., chairman of . Dupont de Nemours amp co. A this is not a phase two of what we announced in july a Woolard said. A it is an Effort to see if we can get people to work More efficiently together. We estimate if we Are successful it has the potential to improve profits by up to $2 billion with about half of that coming from increased production in existing plants and the other half from things like reduced Cycle time and less  Long term Bonds notes lure investors seeking High yields by Kenneth n. Gilpin the new York times new York a prices of Treasury securities continued to Rise and interest rates moved lower again wednesday As investors eager to capture higher yields concentrated on longer term notes and Bonds. A number of developments during the session seemed to reduce the risk of buying longer term higher yielding securities which Are generally seen As speculative because of their maturity. The news included More evidence that the Economy remains soft. In addition comments by president Bush and Robert Parry president of the Federal Reserve Bank of san Francisco were Well received by Bond traders. The economic data included another weak report from the nations automakers which said 6.2 million vehicles were sold during the last 10 Days of november at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. The numbers were slightly better than sales during the Middle 10 Days of the month. But analysts said sales for the entire period probably did not exceed 6 million a very Low level. Revisions in the third Quarter growth rate of the Gross National product announced wednesday by the Commerce department also reinforced the notion that the Economy was still very weak analysts said. The changes showed that inventory accumulation during the summer Quarter was much bigger than expected and that final demand was weaker. A those changes leave us vulnerable to a negative growth number in the fourth Quarter and again in the first Quarter a said Joseph Liro a senior vice president and Money Market economist at . Warburg amp co. The revisions were announced Only a few hours before Parry who will become a voting member of the Federal reserves policy making open Market committee next year told an audience in Seattle that because of favourable inflation trends the fed has More leeway to push interest rates lower to stimulate the Economy. Meanwhile Bush was reported As saying that he did not want any economic stimulus package that would increase the Federal budget deficit. A emr. Bush a comments that he wont throw in the Towel in fiscal policy helped the Market a said Steven a. Wood director of financial markets research at the Bank of America. In the secondary Market for Treasury or. Bush s comments that he won t throw in the Towel in fiscal policy helped the Market a Steven a. Wood of the Bank of America Points or hundredths of a percentage Point. Six month Bill rates fell by a similar amount to a late offered rate of 4.29 percent. New Issue activity remained Strong in the tax exempt municipal Bond Market. Among the issues priced wednesday was a negotiated Sale of $337 million Worth of serial and term Bonds for the new York state environmental facilities corp. Serial Bonds were preliminarily priced with yields from 4.90 percent in 1993 to 6.75 percent on Bonds maturing in 2005. A term Bond that matures in 2010 was priced to yield 6.996 percent. And securities maturing in 2014 were priced to yield 6.95 percent. Goldman Sachs amp co. Acted As Lead manager for the underwriting. The securities Are rated a by Moody a investors service and a by Standard amp poor a securities the 8 percent 30-year Bonds of 2021 were offered at a Price of 1013/4 late wednesday to yield 7.84 percent compared with 7.89 percent late tuesday. In the secondary Market for Treasury notes demand for the 7.50 percent 10-year securities remained Strong. For the second straight session most of the buying was concentrated among longer term notes and Bonds. A the search for yield is on a a government Bond trader said. Rates on Short term Treasury Bills continued to move lower. Three month Bills were offered at a discount rate of 4.30 percent late wednesday Down 4 basis in the investment Grade corporate Bond Market Kmart corp. Offered $200 million Worth of 15-year securities through an underwriting group led by Morgan Stanley amp co. The 8.25 percent notes were priced at $99.50 to yield 8.183 percent 97 basis Points Over the prevailing yield on the Treasury a 7.50 percent 10-year notes at the time of pricing. The securities Are non callable for life and Are rated Al by Moody a and a by Standard amp poor a. As a result of Strong demand the size of the Issue was increased from $100 million. The rally in the government securities Market did not provide a great Deal of support in the secondary Market for investment Grade corporate Bonds. Traders said prices of most issues were up but Only by about 14 Point to 14 Point. In the secondary Market for tax exempt municipal Bonds prices of most widely quoted issues improved by about 14 Point dealers said. Ism preparing to give More leeway to units executive says after session new York a ism chairman John Akers meeting with top managers in an All Day session wednesday outlined his plan to decentralize the computer maker an Industry executive said. Akers discussed How he will give 1 greater autonomy to International business machine  business units such As its division that makes personal computers said the executive who spoke on condition of anonymity. Last week Akers announced the outline of his plan de signed to enable in my a business units to compete More effectively in the fast moving computer Industry. He called it a a fundamental redefinition of How ism does  ism has been under pressure to boost its anaemic profits and Stem a loss in Market share which some analysts blame on the company a bureaucracy. On wednesday Akers and his aides filled in Many details for several Hundred Akers of the company a managers who gathered at a hotel near in my a Armonk n.y., Headquarters. Akers did not go As far As some Industry reports and Trade journals had speculated in decentralizing the company the executive said. The chairman did announce plans however for spinning off some of in my a smaller business units into separate subsidiaries. Among them ism plans to form a separate business within ism for its Printer operations with the eventual plan of turning it into a subsidiary with its own Board of directors the executive said. Ism already has such an arrangement for its financing subsidiary ism credit corp. Earlier this year ism sold its typewriter and Low Ena Printer businesses. These became a separate company called Lex Mark in which ism holds a minority stake. The new Printer company would include the Printer lines not transferred to Lex Mark. Akers also said ism will form a separate line of business for its computer disk drive operations which now Are part of its mainframe computer division the executive said. Disk drives store data. On monday ism announced that the head of its mainframe division Carl Conti had moved up his retirement to dec. 31 from next Spring in Light of the reorganization. But it provided no details on the changes. Akers and the other top executives also described changes wednesday in How the business units account for their costs and How they Harge one another for services and goods the executive said. Such changes Are aimed at allowing the units to report their revenues and profits publicly which is rarely done at major companies. Although Akers said last week that ism May seek More alliances such As a startling pact with Apple computer inc., no such alliances were disclosed wednesday the executive said. Ism plans to disclose details of its plan later in the week said spokesman Rob Wilson who had no comment on wednesdays session. In my a Stock Price which has been steadily declining in response to the company a sluggish performance hit a 52-week Low wednesday falling $1.25 to $90 per share