BIZWATCH\MARKETS.

FALLING APPLE: Apple Computer, down 1 13/16 to 27 5/16. Standard & Poor's lowered its rating on $300 million worth of Apple's debt to "junk" status, citing expected operating losses, uncertain strategic direction and management turmoil. The decision raises Apple's borrowing costs. Months of takeover speculation intensified last week with reports that Sun Microsystems was close to buying Apple.

MORE JOBLESS: Japan last year had the highest unemployment rate in its history, the government said. Young workers were hit hardest as companies shifted production abroad to cope with the yen's rise against the dollar. The 1995 jobless rate of 3.2 percent was up 0.3 of a percentage point from 1994, the previous record-setting year, the government reported Tuesday. Overall, about 2.1 million workers were jobless last year.

PAN AM RELAUNCH: Pan American World Airways, an airline whose name was nearly as well known as Coca-Cola's, will be resurrected this summer as a low-fare carrier based at New York's Kennedy Airport, an investor who is leading the venture said Tuesday. Martin Shugrue, once the old airline's chairman and more recently trustee of the bankrupt Eastern Airlines, said the new Pan Am initially would fly between Kennedy and Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Chicago. "This is not a shoestring operation," said Shugrue. "This will be a full-service, real-amenity, real airline."

SOUR SALES:The holiday shopping season ended on a sour note in December as retail sales rose an anemic 0.3 percent. Consumer confidence, meanwhile, has sunk to a two-year low. Many analysts said reports released Tuesday underscored how pronounced the economic slowdown has become and raised chances that the Federal Reserve will cut short-term interest rates today.

EXECUTIVE FILE

WEBMANIA: Steve Jobs, chairman and chief executive officer of Next Software Inc., announced Next's new WebObjects suite of software products at the WebMania event in San Francisco on Tuesday. The three-product suite gives developers the ability to create dynamic Web sites for the Internet and Intranets.

REAL ESTATE

PRIME LOCATION:The landmark World Trade Center might be on the auction block soon. With profits sinking, however, and the governors of New York and New Jersey demanding "maximum public benefit," the two-state Port Authority began studying three options last week: selling the trade center, arranging a long-term lease or placing it under private management. Net income at the trade center has dropped from $51 million in 1992 to $40 million in 1993 and $8 million in 1994.

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Chart (1--Color) BIZ FACTS THE THRIFTY AND THE NOT-SO-THRIFTY Estimated annual household savings rate, 1995 Knight-Ridder Tribune Grpahics Network (2--Color) DOW INDUSTRIALS