President Reagan has denied duty-free benefits on...

President Reagan has denied duty-free benefits on about $159 million of imports from Thailand because that country fails to protect U.S. patents and copyrights . . . Harris Associates L.P., a Chicago investment advisory firm, said it lowered its stake in Los Angeles-based Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc. to 7.8% of the firm’s common shares outstanding . . . Farley Inc. extended its $1.4-billion hostile tender offer for West Point-Pepperell Inc. for the eighth time and asked a federal judge to invalidate another of the textile company’s takeover defenses . . . Defense electronics contractor Fairchild Industries Inc. has rejected an unsolicited $264-million takeover offer by Washington-based investment partnership Carlyle Group . . . Dallas-based J.C. Penney Co. announced that all purchases charged on its credit card in California after March 31, 1989, will be subject to an annual finance charge rate of 19.8%.