European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 4, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday january 4, 1992 the stars and stripes b Page 15. A Money matters today s tip As the nations retailers began reporting the results of the Holiday Selling season thursday toys r us stood out with better than expected sales gains that caused a Stampede among investors to buy its Stock. Results of two regional discount chains were More in line with analysts expectations. Toys r us said sales for the eight weeks that ended dec. 28 were up 16.4 percent to $2.5 billion compared with $2.1 billion during the corresponding period last year. Sales in stores open at least one year which is considered a better indicator of performance were up 7.9 percent for the Christmas season. Analysts said toys r us Way of keeping mum during the Normal Holiday hype typically makes investors jittery and the better than expected sales made its Stock the volume Leader for the Day. The Stock closed up 2 Points thursday at 34%. On nov. 6, when gloomy prognostications for the Christmas season were beginning to show up in newspapers and on television toys r us shares traded at 26%. Conversion rates London up fridays 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 $353.25 an ounce Silver at $4.00. Jan 2 Jan 3 British pound.1.8685 1.8495 German mark.1.5183 1.5455 French franc5.1875 5.2560 dutch guilder.1.7220 1.7271 belgian franc31.25 31.71 italian lira1,151.50 1,162.00 Swiss franc.1 3640 1.3715 greek drachma175.30 1 76.95 turkish lira5,087.50 5.122.80 saudi arabian riyal3.7499 3.7499 Spanish peseta96.53 97.37 portuguese escudo.133 25 134.00 Canadian dollar1.1533 1.1491 austrian schilling.10 6810 10 79 norwegian krone.5.9775 6.0350 danish krone.5.9040 5.9650 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 1.50 through monday based on fridays noontime Price fixing. Dow Jones new York up now Jones closing Range of averages thursday 30 Indus nals 20 transport 15 uni ties 65 stocks High 3184.70 1354.82 225.90 1159.12 in 3119.86 1323.24 222 46 1135.39 Clese 3172.41 aka up 3.58 1342.12 off 15.88 224.46 off 1.69 1152.38 off 4.44 factory orders up in november Washington a orders to . Factories Rose a modest 0.6 percent in november after a bigger Advance in october the government said Friday. They were the first Back to Back gains since april and May of 1991 but they failed to get demand Back to where it was earlier in the summer the Commerce department said. Orders for durable and non durable goods climbed to a seasonally adjusted $243.7 billion in november following an increase of 1.9 percent in october and declines of 2.3 percent in september and 2 percent in August. . Worker productivity Rose slightly revised figures show from wire reports Washington a worker productivity Rose at a slight rate of 0.9 percent last summer a much weaker Advance than first believed the government reported Friday. A a it a consistent with an Economy moving sideways. These slow productivity gains Are a product of a struggling Economy a said Robert Dederick chief economist at the Northern Trust co. Non farm productivity defined As output per hour of work Rose 0.9 percent from july through september rather than the 2.4 percent rebound first reported the labor department said in its revision. But the gain still marked the third straight quarterly Advance the first such Streak of improvements in nearly four years. A in an Economy where everyone is being squeezed it is promising that productivity growth is tending to show some gains a said Allen Sinai chief economist at the Boston co. Fridays report also revised productivity upward for the second Quarter. Productivity increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent from april through june a stronger gain than the 0.5 percent increase first reported. Increased productivity is considered vital to improving americans Standard of living without increasing inflation. The report also included encouraging data on inflation. Unit labor costs considered a key barometer of business expenses Rose 1.9 percent in the third Quarter Well below the 2.6 percent increase in the second Quarter and the 5.3 percent surge for All of last year. A wages Are really being held Down these Days. While that a Tough for the worker it is acting to contain inflation a Dederick said. The lowered productivity number is not surprising since the government also recently revised july september calculations of Overall economic growth. The Gross Domestic product or the total output of goods and services produced in the United states edged up 1.7 percent for the third Quarter below an earlier reported growth rate of 2.5 percent. In the third Quarter while output grew 1.6 percent hours Rose 0.7 percent. Hours probably Rose slower than output analysts said because recession in companies Are living off their inventories. Stocks Are higher than they would like. With weak final demand we re seeing a pickup in rate of inventory liquidation a Norman Robertson Mellon Bank economist diced layoffs left fewer workers on payrolls. Meanwhile the Overall . Economy grew at a slower rate in december and manufacturing declined the nations purchasing agents said. Analysts assessment of the dip ranged from gloomy to upbeat. The latest report on business by the National association of purchasing management showed thursday that production and new orders declined slightly. New Export orders grew in december but at the lowest rate since february 1991. Imports declined for the 18th time in 19 months. Employment declined for the 35th consecutive month in december at the greatest rate since May 1991. The purchasing managers Index closely watched by . And International financial markets dropped to 46.5 percent in december Down from 50.1 percent in november. It was the first time the Index had fallen though the psychologically important 50 percent level since it Rose to 50.9 percent in june 1991. A Reading below 50 percent indicates the manufacturing Economy is generally declining above 50 percent it is expanding. Norman Robertson chief economist of Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh gave a gloomy assessment of the numbers. A they confirm that manufacturing activity has slipped Back into recession a Robertson said. A a we be had a significant decline now that goes Back several months which indicates the recovery was Short lived and  Robertson said the Survey showed inventories declined for the 37th month at the greatest rate since june 1991. Quot companies Are living off their inventories. Stocks Are higher than they would like. With weak final demand we re seeing a pickup in rate of inventory  Robertson said that As Long As companies were Selling off goods already in their warehouses they would not be producing Many new goods a meaning production and employment would decline. The purchasing managers report said new orders the engine of growth fell in december after seven months of growth declining to 49.9 percent from 53.4 percent in november. After growing for six consecutive months since june 1991, production declined slightly in december As the production Index dropped to 49.5 percent Down from november a 52.7 percent. Production is not Likely to grow much until new orders begin to grow. Big 3 automakers shutting Down 34 n. American plants for a week Detroit a the big three automakers announced thursday that they will close 34 of their North american Assembly plants for All of next week affecting nearly 74,500 hourly autoworkers. Twenty nine of the plants Are being closed because dealers Arentt ordering enough of the cars they make. Five Are being closed because of retooling or material shortages. Automakers routinely shut Assembly plants to bring production into line with sales. But the cutbacks were worse than Normal for this time of year because of the National recession which has deeply wounded the automobile Industry. The number of layoffs during the first full week of the new year was about 12,500 More than during the corresponding week in 1991. Laid off autoworkers at general motors corp., Ford motor co. And Chrysler corp. Receive benefits equivalent to 95 percent of their take Home pay. Pm will close 13 Assembly plants next week resulting in More than 38,500 temporary layoffs. The company did not say whether any of the 13 Are among the 21 plants it plans to shut permanently by 1994. Two other pm plants will be closed for retooling but Many of their 5,600 hourly employees will be at work. Ford considered the most efficient of the big three automakers will close a dozen Assembly plants including All but three of its truck plants. Its Plant in Wixom mich., with 3,000 hourly employees will be closed next week because of a materials shortage and its Lorain Ohio car Plant with 3,700 workers will be shut Down for retooling. Chrysler said four Assembly plants would be shut Down next week affecting nearly 14,000 workers. A Chrysler Plant in Bra Malea Ontario with 850 employees is Down for retooling. Assets of Mutual funds take record fall new York a assets of the nations 585 Money Market Mutual funds plunged by a record $21.28 billion As investors pulled their Money out of funds to join the year end rally on Wall Street the investment company Institute said thursday. The huge decline to $457.76 billion in the seven Day period that ended tuesday followed a $6.14 billion drop in the funds assets the previous week according to the Mutual fund Trade group. The latest plunge dwarfed the previous record of $8.89 billion set in the week that ended dec. 22, 1982. Sharp declines Are common at years end in part because investors use some of the Money to pay Christmas Bills. But the $27.42 billion drop of the past two weeks was unprecedented. Jacob Dreyer chief economist for the Institute said institutional and individual investors yanked their Money out of funds to buy equities while the Stock mar Ket was surging to new highs at year s end. T he Dow Jones Industrial average shot up More than 266 Points in the two weeks that ended t tuesday. The Institute said that in the latest week assets of 280 general purpose funds fell $2.89 billion to $173.81 billion assets of 88 broker dealer funds dropped $3.41 billion to $139.62 billion and assets of 217 institutional funds declined $14.98 billion to $144.33 billion