BIZWATCH : MARKETS.

Technology stocks led the market's decline Wednesday amid across-the-board weakness following the much-anticipated decision by the Federal Reserve to leave short-term interest rates unchanged.

MEMO

GLEN FED: Standard & Poor's debt rating service boosted its ratings outlook on Glendale Federal Bank to positive from stable due to continuing improvement in its financial profile. S&P cited improved profit performance over the past 2-1/2 years, improved asset quality, stronger levels of retail funding and maintaining a strong balance sheet.

COUNTRY-THEME CASINO: International Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. and Las Vegas Entertainment Network Inc. said they will proceed with plans to build a new casino/hotel on the Las Vegas strip after settling a dispute over the project. The project, expected to open in the first quarter of 1998, will have a country-western theme and be called ``CountryLand USA.'' Details about the facility's size, cost and financing weren't available.

RETIREMENT PLANNED: Calabasas-based Tekelec said its president, Alan Toomer, plans to retire at the end of 1997 but will remain on the board of the telecommunications equipment testing specialist and announced it has started a search for a new chief executive officer to succeed Philip Alford who resigned in December. The company, which made the announcement after the stock market closed, also reported fourth-quarter earnings of $2.6 million, or 20 cents a share, up sharply from earnings of $233,000 in the 1995 period, and a 40 percent gain in sales to $24 million.

AEROSPACE WORK: Tracor Flight Systems Inc. will perform more subassembly work for McDonnell Douglas's MD-95 airliner at its new Palmdale plant under a $27 million contract, company officials announced Wednesday. The contract expands Tracor's role as a subcontractor on the 100-passenger airliner intended as a successor to the venerable DC-9, and provides more work for the company's 100-plus Palmdale employees.

BUILDING EXPANSION: Lockheed Martin's ``Skunk Works'' will add a 70,000-square-foot building to its Plant 10 complex as part of an effort to relocate 1,000 workers from Ontario to the Antelope Valley. Expected to be completed in June and covering nearly two acres of floor space, the building will include hangar space plus offices for about 60 Air Force and government civilians and about 80 Skunk Works employees.

BANKING: Striking back at banking behemoths, the Independent Bankers Association of America will create its own bank in St. Petersburg, Fla. to issue Visa and MasterCard credit cards. The new bank, to be called Total Credit Management Bank, or TCM Bank NA, will be owned by 2,000 community banks and service 2 million cardholders, the IBAA said Wednesday. It will initially employ fewer than 200 people.

NATURAL-GAS VEHICLES: General Motors Corp. said it will produce 1997-model pickup trucks that run on compressed natural gas, targeting utility companies and other fleet buyers. The natural gas option on the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet C2500 full-size trucks will cost $5,800, but the cost is partially offset by tax credits. Drivers can flip a switch to change the modified Vortec 5700 V8 engine's fuel to natural gas or gasoline.

CAPTION(S):

2 Charts

Chart: (1--Color) DOW INDUSTRIALS

(2--Color) BIZ FACTS

NATIONAL LIABILITIES

Projected government financial liabilities, as a percentage of normal GDP, 1997

Knight-Ridder Tribune Graphics Network