-- Profit takers took over late in yesterday's session when investors could find no reason not to pocket some gains. The Dow Jones industrials were down over 20 points at 10,866. Standard and Poor's 500-stock index was off over 5 points at just under 1339. The New York Exchange composite index was down a fraction at just under 640. Advancers had a 17-to-12 margin over decliners on volume of 747 million shares. Among the most active stocks: America On Line off 5...Compaq Computer off 1-2...Cendant Corporation up 7-8...AT&T up 5-8...Cadence Design up 1 1-16. The Nasdaq was lower, but the American Exchange was higher. The 30-year Treasury bond fell 12/32 to 91 27/32. The yield rose to 5.83 percent. -- The dollar yesterday closed at 124.25 against the Yen...and 1.0625 against the Euro. -- On the New York Comex, June gold closed up $1.20 at $274.70. -- The Comex closed May silver up over 2-cents at $5.28. -- Two big vitamin companies accused of price-fixing decided to settle rather than fight. Roche and BASF will reportedly pay $725 million. That would be the biggest settlement of its kind. The government accused Roche and BASF of a worldwide conspiracy to fix the price of vitamins. -- Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve is urging Asian countries to adopt the kind of financial supervision and disclosure that America has. He told a House sub-committee that if countries like Thailand and South Korea had been more open about their situations, their recessions would not have been as deep. -- Analysts got a briefing from Apple Computer yesterday and came away with mixed feelings. One said the company's focused strategy on the consumer market makes Apple attractive. But another analyst who was expecting the company to already be shipping its portable IBook remains neutral. -- Unisys says it's won a $300 million contract to test chips for a maker of semiconductors. Just a few months ago, Unisys -- looking for such business -- bought a company that specializes in chip testing. -- Ford is booting its CFO. John Devine has been with the company 31 years. It's only the latest change since Ford's new CEO, Jac Nasser, took over last fall. Seven vice-presidents have left and 20 other top officers have seen their responsibilities changed. -- General Motors has picked a site in White Marsh, Maryland, for its new automatic transmission plant. Groundbreaking is tentatively set for this summer. The governor of Maryland said it's the first modern manufacturing plant to locate in the state in almost 30 years. -- You can forgive Mazda for celebrating. It's chalked up its first profit in six years. For the fiscal year ending March 31st, Mazda made $312 million...and believes this year will be even better. Market share also rose. -- Get ready for the newest thing in commodities...bandwidth. The communications unit of Enron Corporation is going to begin trading bandwidth so businesses can more quickly make transactions and react to the Internet market. Enron Communications says deals that used to take months will only take seconds. -- The chairman of Nationwide Insurance has decided it's time for change. He's announced a new corporate brand identity and the company's first national advertising campaign. Various units will also be re- named. -- A top trade negotiator says the U.S. will make another effort to break the deadlock over meat exports with the European Union. For 10 years, the E.U. has banned imports of beef treated with hormones. Twice the World Trade Organization has ruled that the ban violates international trade rules. -- It's one of your more unusual recalls. Rawlings Sporting Goods is calling back 45,000 aluminum bats designed for slow-pitch softball. The tops of the bats are reportedly breaking off during play. So far, no injuries reported. The recall does not involve aluminum bats that Rawlings makes for baseball or fast-pitch softball. --  