BIZWATCH\MARKETS.

GOOD HAIR DAY: Helene Curtis Industries rose 12-3/4 to 65-7/8. The Chicago-based personal-care products maker said it is in talks with one or more undisclosed parties about a possible merger. Last week Shamrock Holdings Inc., which holds a 7.6 percent stake in Helene Curtis, publicly urged the company to seek a buyer.

ON A DOWN NOTE: Yields on five-year Treasury notes fell in Wednesday's auction to the lowest level in two years. The high yield was 5.36 percent, down from 5.55 percent at the last auction Dec. 21. The notes will carry a coupon interest rate of 5.25 percent, with each $10,000 in face value selling for $9,952.30. A total of $12 billion in notes was sold out of bids totaling $26.7 billion.

SMOOTH MOVES: A drug used to smooth out wrinkles caused by years of exposure to the sun might be able to prevent such damage in the first place, a study suggests. Tretinoin is the active ingredient in Renova, a prescription cream recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to reduce fine facial wrinkles and other signs of chronic sun exposure. The new work is reported in today's issue of the journal Nature by Gary J. Fisher, Dr. John J. Voorhees and colleagues at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.

FAX-FINING PROBE: Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Paper Mills Ltd. agreed Wednesday to plead guilty and pay a $1.8 million fine for its part in a price-fixing scheme that raised the price of fax paper in the United States and Canada. The case against Mitsubishi was part of the Justice Department's ongoing investigation into price fixing in the $120 million-a-year thermal-fax paper industry. The department already has obtained guilty pleas in several cases and collected more than $10 million in fines.

ORANGE BREAK: William McLucas, director of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced Wednesday that the SEC will not seek financial penalties against Orange County in a civil case stemming from the nation's largest municipal bankruptcy.

EXECUTIVE FILE

TAKING OFF: Learjet Inc. President and Chief Executive Brian Barents, who helped the company recover from near-bankruptcy a few years ago, will resign effective Wednesday. Barents, 52, will be replaced as president by Jim Robinson, 46, Learjet's executive vice president of operations activities, the company said. It gave no reason for Barents' resignation, and he did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

TAKE NOTE

"Starting and Operating Your Own Business," an all-day seminar covering business organizations, record keeping, taxes and legal requirements, marketing, and insurance, will be offered by the Service Corps of Retired Executives from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, 350 S. Bixel St., downtown Los Angeles. Cost is $15. For more information, call [phone].

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CHART[ordinal indicator, masculine]PHOTO

Chart (1--Color) BIZ FACTS CORPORATE WELFARE Annual per capita federal costs for corporate and personal "welfare" in 1995 according to a report by the Center for the Study of Responsive Law Knight-Ridder Tribune Graphics Network (2--Color) DOW INDUSTRIALS Photo (Color) William McLucas