Executive Business Briefing 10:42:34 EST

[UPI]

Executive Business Briefing
By United Press International
Here's a look at the hour's top business stories from UPI Financial:

Citicorp and Travelers Group say they will join forces in a stock
deal valued at $140 billion. The merger would be the largest in history
and the result would be the world's largest financial services company.
The new company would be named Citigroup and use the trademark Travelers
red umbrella as its logo. It would serve over 100 million customers in
100 countries around the world.

The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

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Stock prices rocketed higher from the opening bell, on news of the
mega-merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group. The Dow Jones industrial
average, which flirted with the 9000 milestone all session on Friday,
soared past that mark in early trading. At 11:25 a.m. Eastern time, the
blue-chip index had retreated a bit. The Dow was up 61.03 points at
9044.44.

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Alcoa reports its first-quarter net income rose 32 percent from the
same period one year ago. Net income was $209.9 million, or $1.25 per
common share. The figure is well above the IBES Wall Street analysts'
consensus estimate of $1.07 per share. First-quarter revenues rose to
$3.4 billion from $3.2 billion in the 1997 first quarter. Alcoa is the
world's leading aluminum producer.

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California-based Excite has acquired Classifieds2000 in a $48 million
stock deal. Classifieds2000 is one of the leading independent classified
advertising companies on the Internet. Excite's president George Bell
calls Web classifieds a ``huge business.'' Industry analysts forecast
the World Wide Web-based classifieds market will exceed $1 billion by
the year 2000.

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MidAmerican Energy Holdings says it plans to acquire AmerUs Home
Services, one of the nation's largest real estate brokerage
organizations. The terms have not been disclosed. The acquisition
includes real estate operations in five states. Among holdings are Iowa
Realty, First Realty/Better Homes & Gardens, Edina Realty and Carol
Jones Realtors.

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Flight crews on international routes of Japan's All Nippon Airways
are striking to protest a two-year-old management plan to introduce a
new wage system. Union officials say other Japanese airlines face
similar action. The union set no time limit for the strike, which began
at midnight Sunday. All Nippon officials say pilots in managerial
positions will replace the strikers.

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In early New York trading, the dollar fell to 1.8385 German marks
from late Friday's 1.8485 and to 134.65 Japanese yen from 135.20.

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On New York's Comex, a 100-troy-ounce gold futures contract for April
delivery opened at $309 an ounce, up $1 from Friday's close. A 5,000-
troy-ounce silver futures contract for May delivery opened at $6.57 an
ounce, down 0.5 cent.

In London, gold closed at $310.50 an ounce, up $4 from Friday's
close.

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Market Statistics at 11:25 a.m. Eastern time:
DJIA 9044.44 up 61.03
NYSE Composite Index 585.13 up 2.05
S&P 500 Index 1125.13 up 2.43
AMEX Composite Index 746.69 off 0.50
NMS Composite Index 834.19 off 8.28
NASDAQ Composite Index 1837.71 off 17.69
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Copyright 1998 by United Press International.

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