Reuters ranks No. 1.

Reuters Holdings PLC, the well-known British news agency, has become the world's biggest electronic publisher. It now ranks far ahead of leading U.S. competitors such as Dow Jones and Co. and Mead Corp.

Reuters operates in 110 countries with 86,000 computer terminals collecting and disseminating market data on currencies, securities and commodities - just about anything that is traded.

With annual sales of $800 million, Reuters has a big stake in the U.S. and European computerized information market now estimated at $3 billion and growing by 25% a year.

Fed error corrected

A substantial mistake distorted a congressional report stating that wealth in the U.S. is becoming more concentrated.

The widely publicized report claimed that the richest 0.5% of American families saw their share of the nations total wealth rise to 35% from 25% between 1963 and 1923. The study was released by the Joint Economic Committee and was based on data compiled by the University of Michigan for the Federal Reserve Board.

The Fed staff found that a single family was inaccurately reported to have about $200 million instead of $2 million in unincorporated assets, according to Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Darby. Since the report weighed this segment so heavily, it accounted for almost all of the change in the concentration of wealth.

Despite the Fed error, the figures are still astounding. The richest of 0.5% of American families still control more than 25% of the country's wealth.

Computer data rates

In a recent Syracuse University study, government officials were more sure of decisions made with the help of data obtained from a computer. The study revealed that those who used data from books and reports were more likely to change their minds.

Do-it-yourself scan

A Utah supermarket is allowing customers to do their own scanning of grocery items on a few checkout lanes. The store manager states that customers seem to enjoy scanning their own groceries and it's saving him money.

To make sure that all items are scanned they are first weighed.

Study shows older mothers earn more

A Harvard University economist, David Bloom, has analyzed U.S. Bureau of Census data to show that working women who delay childbearing beyond age 27 earn more money than those who have children before age 22, regardless of differences in education and experience.

Bloom, also affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Mass., found that women who delayed childbearing beyond age 27 earn about 10% more than women who had their first child before age 22.

Of the women born between 1956 and 1960, 15.5% will be permanently childless, Bloom predicts. That is 2.5% less than the predicted number of childless among women born between 1951 and 1955.

Research funds urged

The recent White House Conference on Small Business in Washington came out strongly in favor of reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research Program which sets aside a por¬tion of federal research and develop¬ment funds for small business.

Controversial study accurate after all

A controversial study to establish the number of homeless people in the U.S. has now been followed by a second study which seems to confirm the original study's results.

Two years ago the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) reported that its study showed about 350,000 homeless people in the U.S. Various advocacy groups have estimated that the number of homeless is as high as three million. Congressional hearings also criticized the methodology used in the HUD survey.

A recent study by Harvard University economist Richard Freeman came up with the surprising conclusion that the 350,000 figure was indeed close to reality.

Freeman's associate, Brian Hall, a Harvard graduate student, interviewed 500 homeless people in parks, soup kitchens and shelters and on the streets of New York. Results were crosschecked with results of other surveys in Boston and elsewhere.

"It wasn't a super-random sample (in New York)," Freeman said, but "probably as good a sample as one could find with this type of population."

Indications are that the number of homeless is increasing in part because there is an increasing shortage of low-cost housing. Based on Hall's interviews, 39% of the homeless had spent some time in jail. The typical homeless person will be on the street or in shelters for 12 years.

Survey shows home ownership decline

A national survey conducted for the National Gypsum Co. discovered that home ownership in the U.S. dropped to 63.5% of all families in 1985 compared with 65.7% in 1980.

The greatest decline among new home owners was among young people, who often cannot afford down payments and large mortgages.

A group from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted the study for the Joint Center for Housing Studies.

In 1978 the typical buyer had to make a down payment of about one-third of annual household income, the study found. By 1985 the share had risen to one-half. While figures for 1986 have not been established, it is likely that home buying conditions have eased considerably since the last study was completed.

The 1985 default rates were up, rising to almost 1% of existing mortgages. Nearly 6% of all home mortgage borrowers were at least 30 days late on a monthly payment last year.

20,000 adults part of U.S. health study

Some startling findings are coming out of a continuing research project sponsored by the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. More than 20,000 adults in 21 states are participating in a random-sample telephone survey to monitor behaviors that are linked to the leading causes of deaths in the U.S.

As expected, sedentary lifestyles, being overweight and smoking are all risk factors for heart disease. But some unusual discoveries are also being made.

For example, Wisconsin and North Dakota have the highest rates of "binge drinking." Utah citizens do the least smoking, attributable possibly to the Mormon Church's strong opposition to cigarettes. A high percentage of Utah's population belongs to the Mormon Church.

Utah also leads in another positive category - along with California. Those two states have the fewest overweight people in the U.S. Further, Utah and California rank at the top if all health categories were considered together, said Gary Hogelin, project director at CDC.

Idahoans ranked No. 1 in the "exercising" category. Other leading "least overweight" states included Arizona, Connecticut, Montana and North Carolina.