WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO

It’s not easy being Alan Greenspan, as we all know. All this conflicting information.

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average bumping its head against the 10,000 ceiling, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book comes out and says the boom is pushing wage demands faster than before, but sellers are reluctant to raise prices.

Then the inflation report provides confirmation: The Consumer Price Index rose only 0.1% in February, while inflation-adjusted wages rose 0.7% to $452.49 a week.

Then the bad news: The trade deficit, coming off a record $170 billion for 1998, set another record in January of almost $17 billion. That’s up an unexpectedly high $3 billion from December.

The culprits? No. 1, China, which with its steel and other manufactured goods took over from Japan as the biggest deficit trade partner. No. 2, the strong dollar, which makes U.S. exports so expensive that even globe-girdling giants like Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. are hard hit.

Does this mean the economy is too hot or do the trade figures point to a cooling off? Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin says he isn’t worried. So what’s a poor Fed chairman to do the when the Federal Open Market Committee meets to set interest rates next week?

Syron-ara

American Stock Exchange honcho Richard F. Syron, 55, is heading back to Red Sox country where he once was shogun of the Boston Fed. He’s leaving in June after five years on the job to become president of Thermo Electron Corp., a company in Waltham, Mass., which sells a range of stuff that uses heat and electricity.

The former Curb Exchange gave up its independence in December to become part of the National Association of Securities Dealers, whose electronic Nasdaq Stock Market may itself have tripped on the merger. Both it and Amex continue to lose high-profile listings and initial public offerings to the New York Stock Exchange and mergers with other exchanges have hit the hold button.

On the bright side, though, Amex options are booming, including the brand-new QQQ spider based on the Nasdaq 100. But even there, Amex lost one to the Big Board, which wouldn’t let the little guy call it just Q because it owns the letter as a ticker symbol.

$64 million question

Sanford I. Weill, who you’ll recall took a big pay cut last year, must have a big dental bill or something in an effort to improve his masticatory function after gobbling up Citicorp. The Citigroup co-chief executive has already sold $64 million worth of the company’s stock this month and now he’s filed to sell another $132 million worth before June 12. At least the sale is good for the Salomon Smith Barney unit, which will pick up the commissions, and despite the insider selling, the stocks sails right along.

Stability abroad

Although British unemployment climbed for the first time in six months, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee refused to cut interest rates further. Its members said they see only green lights ahead.

Which brings up the euro. It’s falling again, after a brief spurt upward when German Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine quit. It’s lost 10% against the simoleon in its less-than-three-month history and is down to $1.07 or so.

The smart shekels are betting that the 11-nation concept currency will hit parity with the buck before the year is out.

The resignation of all the European Council’s members last week might even have kept the euro’s head above water a while longer. As one banker told the British Broadcasting Corp., “The commission was already regarded as incompetent. (The mass resignation) was like a system cleansing.”

Price of Pride

Cendant Corp. settled a lawsuit with holders of a special class of its preferred stock, called Prides, who maintained that the company’s prospectus contained accounting irregularities. Investors will get rights worth $11.71 for each Pride.

Wired

InfoBead of La Jolla, Calif., reports that 50.3% of American homes had at least one personal computer at the end of 1998. That’s up from 40% two years earlier. Sell it cheaper and they will buy.