BIZWATCH : MARKETS.

MARKET LOGIC: Technology shares slid sharply Tuesday, leading a nervous market lower, with investors growing increasingly concerned about difficult market conditions for the computer industry. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 24.75 to 5,628.03. The blue-chip barometer held a slight gain until midafternoon, then trailed lower with bonds as a tame report on new housing construction failed to calm worries about inflation and interest rates.

MEMO LITTON CONTRACT: Woodland Hills-based Litton Industries Inc. said Tuesday that its Guidance & Control Systems division won a $22.3 million U.S. Army contract to produce several hundred devices that identify an aircraft as friend or foe.The lightweight, ground-based units - ordinarily deployed with front line combat troops - are slated for delivery to Japan, Greece, France, Portugal, the Netherlands and Italy under the U.S. Department of Defense foreign military sales program. The units will be produced at Litton's Northridge facility.

BREAKING A SLUMP: Japan's economy broke out of three years of near-zero growth with a surprisingly strong January-March surge that economists said was driven by last year's government spending boost. The Economic Planning Agency said Tuesday that the nation's gross domestic product grew by 3 percent from the October-December quarter, an annual rate of 12.7 percent. With that, growth for the fiscal year ended March 31 reached 2.3 percent after three years of expansion of 0.5 percent or less.

FDA APPROVAL: The Food and Drug Administration cleared the way for stroke victims to take the first drug that could protect their brains from permanent injury - but only if they get to the emergency room fast. The clot-dissolving drug tPA, sold by Genentech Inc. under the brand name Activase, is widely used to treat heart attacks. Some stroke specialists already were giving it to their patients as well. Tuesday's FDA approval means Genentech can advertise tPA to emergency rooms, rural doctors, even patients, educating them to recognize the earliest signs of ischemic strokes and get help within a three-hour window when tPA can work. But improper tPA use can kill, so doctors must use it very carefully and on only some patients, the FDA warned.

MOTOROLA CLEARED: A federal judge cleared Motorola Inc. on Tuesday of charges that its wireless telephones infringed on another company's patents. U.S. District Judge Joseph Longobardi denied a motion by InterDigital Communications Inc. of King of Prussia, Pa., for a new trial. His decision upheld a 1995 jury verdict and validated Motorola's claims that InterDigital's wireless patents were common knowledge.

NEW VENTURE: Southern New England Telecommunications Corp., the primary phone service company in Connecticut, will join a venture to develop video programs that can be delivered on advanced phone systems. Ameritech Corp., BellSouth Corp., GTE Corp., SBC Communications Inc. and The Walt Disney Co. already are participating in the venture. The expansion of the venture, called Americast, comes a short time after a similar project by Bell Atlantic Corp., Nynex Corp. and Pacific Telesis Group appeared to have collapsed.

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