OTHER NEWS - Dec. 24, 1993

Money Supply Measures Mixed: The Federal Reserve Board reported that the two broadest measures of the nation’s money supply moved in opposite directions in the week ended Dec. 13. The Fed said the measure known as M2 fell to a seasonally adjusted $3,558.2 billion from a revised $3,558.4 billion the previous week. The even broader measure, M3, rose to a seasonally adjusted $4,218.8 billion from a revised $4,209.2 billion. The narrowest measure of the money supply, M1, fell to a seasonally adjusted $1,128.3 billion from $1,129.3 billion. M1 includes cash in circulation, deposits in checking accounts and non-bank travelers checks. M2 is M1 plus accounts like savings deposits and money-market mutual funds. M3 is M2 plus less-liquid accounts, such as certificates of deposit in minimum denominations of $100,000.

The four sitting members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission elected Barbara Pedersen Holum, a Democrat of Annapolis, Md., as acting chairman. She succeeds Sheila Bair, a Republican, who has been serving as acting chairman since August 20. Bair will remain on the CFTC as a commissioner. . . . An appeals court judge has reinstated 20 state charges against Charles H. Keating Jr., the former Lincoln Savings head convicted of fraud in the nation’s costliest thrift failure. Reinstatement of the charges has no apparent practical effect. . . . Fibreboard Corp. said it finalized an agreement in which its insurers will finance the nation’s costliest settlement of asbestos injury claims. . . . Kmart Corp., for the second year in a row, said it’s recalling electric candles it sold because they could cause fires or shocks.