BIZWATCH : MARKETS.

MARKET LOGIC: Stocks stumbled for a fourth straight day, sending the Dow Jones industrial average below 6,000 on some reports of disappointing corporate earnings and fresh worries about inflation. The Dow industrials fell 43.98 to 5,992.48, closing below 6,000 for the first time since Oct. 11.

MEMO

TWA EXECUTIVE RESIGNS: Three months after an explosion destroyed a TWA jetliner and on a day the airline posted a quarterly loss linked to the crash, Trans World Airlines Inc.'s chief executive announced his resignation. Jeffrey H. Erickson, who also is the airline's president, said he will step down in January. TWA on Thursday posted a $14.3 million loss for the third quarter, a period that included the July 17 crash of Flight 800. ``I have decided that it is time for me to move on,'' he said in a statement that made no mention of the crash, but which took credit for a financial recovery from bankruptcy proceedings.

CABLE FEE SUIT: Cable companies could face new lawsuits challenging their late-payment fees in the wake of a $6.7 million verdict against a cable operator affiliated with Tele-Communications Inc. The verdict by a District of Columbia jury is not binding elsewhere but it gives momentum to three similar suits filed elsewhere against TCI - and could prompt customers to file other cases against cable companies. The jury concluded that District Cablevision overcharged customers by imposing a $5 fee for each late monthly payment. Jurors said that each overdue payment cost the company an average of only $2.43 and that the $5 charge represented an illegal penalty on delinquent customers.

SNAPPY NEW LOOK?: The Quaker Oats Co. plans to give its struggling Snapple iced teas and fruit juices a new look and new products in a move analysts said may be the last chance at reviving the line. Much of the new focus apparently will be on improving single-serving sales in such places as convenience stores and delicatessens, where 80 percent of Snapple is sold. The Snapple division, acquired in 1994 for $1.7 billion, has been a drag on Quaker's earnings. Snapple lost nearly $35 million during the third quarter.

MERIT REWARDS: U.S. companies increasingly are supplementing merit pay or replacing it with other forms of extra compensation more directly linked to an employee's performance, a business survey shows. Merit raises offered by companies have averaged about 4 percent of an employee's salary for the past four years and likely will remain at that level next year, said Towers Perrin, which conducted the survey. But the survey of 1,617 companies showed nearly 40 percent this year gave employees lump-sum payments instead of merit salary increases. Last year, only 29 percent gave lump-sum rewards.

GM SHUTDOWN: General Motors Corp. shut down its giant Lordstown, Ohio, factory, idling 5,000 employees even as auto workers began returning to their jobs at Canadian plants. The Lordstown plant depends on parts made by GM of Canada Ltd., whose plants are just now getting back into operation. The Ohio shutdown is the second and largest GM assembly plant to be closed because of the Canadian walkout, increasing the total number of GM workers on layoff in the United States and Mexico to 23,801.

MISCELLANEOUS: Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. will make a public offering of 3 million shares of its common stock. The Camarillo-based circuit maker said proceeds will be used to finance expansion and a new wafer fabrication facility. . . . The Los Angeles U.S. Small Business Administration issued a record 1,842 loans totaling $504.1 million in fiscal 1996. More than half the funds went to businesses owned by minorities, women or veterans.

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Chart: (1--Color) DOW INDUSTRIALS

(2--Color) BIZ FACTS

W HAT THE U.S. SELLS TO THE EU

Leading U.S. exports to the EU, 1993

Knight-Ridder Tribune Graphics Network