BIZWATCH : MARKETS.

MARKET LOGIC: Stocks rose Monday, but retreated from a stronger rally as investors remained hesitant before this week's economic reports and next week's Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates. Copper futures prices hit a 26-month low Monday amid reports that Sumitomo Corp.'s losses in a trading scandal could grow to twice the $1.8 billion original estimate. Soybeans and gasoline also fell.

MEMO ON THE AUCTION BLOCK: Though bids for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. were due Monday, it was not clear whether Polygram Holdings, considered a leading bidder, had actually put in an offer. The management of Polygram, a unit of Philips Electronics NV, was said to be waiting until a board meeting on Thursday to actually vote on whether to make a bid. Meanwhile, other bidders who did submit offers to Lazard Freres & Co., the investment banking firm handling the offer, include Morgan Creek Productions, an independent production company as well as Regency Enterprises, which is headed by producer Arnon Milchan. A fourth bidder who did submit an offer Monday is Safari Acquisition, a company run by Peter Ackerman, who had been Michael Milken's chief strategist at Drexel Burnham, and Perry Lerner, who had been senior tax partner at the law firm of O'Melveny & Meyers.

INTERNET ACCESS: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts has joined Healtheon Corp. of California to allow customers to sign up for health insurance and other services on the Internet, the companies said Monday. The pilot program, to be announced at a press conference today in Boston, will be marketed to employers who want to let workers sign up for company-sponsored health insurance, retirement plans and other benefits via computer. The service, which also allows employees to monitor their own benefits, is expected to reduce paperwork and cut administrative costs.

GM OBTAINS SAAB OPTION: General Motors Corp., which owns half of Saab Automobile, announced Monday that it had obtained an option to buy the other half, and an executive said GM was aiming to elevate Saab to a spot alongside its Cadillac division in the worldwide luxury car market. GM and Saab's other owner, Investor AB, the Swedish holding company controlled by the Wallenberg family, agreed to invest $524 million in Saab to pay for the development of new models. At the same time, Investor granted GM the option to buy all or part of the Swedish company's stake in Saab in 1999 or 2000.

INVESTIGATION: Police reaffirmed their belief that the 1991 fire death of a Vermont copper trader was indeed accidental and in no way connected to an international trading scandal that cost Sumitomo Corp. at least $1.8 billion.

Detectives had reopened an investigation into Paul Scully's death last week after Sumitomo disclosed major losses due to clandestine trades its head copper trader, Yasuo Hamanaka, performed over the past decade.

Scully, who worked for a company that traded copper for Hamanaka, had told an associate about what he felt were problems with Hamanaka's trades.

CAPTION(S):

2 Charts

Chart: (1--Color) DOW INDUSTRIALS

(2--Color) BIZ FACTS

L ending a helping hand

Foreign aid from industrial nations to developing ones, as a percent of GDP, 1995

Knight-Ridder Tribune/PAUL TRAP