AUTOS

Big Three to Curtail Assembly: A day after reporting a drop in sales for 1995, Ford, Chrysler and GM said they will shut or cut back production at eight North American car and truck assembly plants for a week. Ford Motor Co.’s cutbacks were the largest, at four plants and 7,300 employees idled. Chrysler Corp. will idle one plant and cut back at another. General Motors Corp. is idling two. Total sales of U.S. light vehicles for all of 1995 were 14,765,371 units, down about 1.8% from the 15,088,430 sold in 1994.