Corporations

Thomas J. Donohue, the aggressive new president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, takes his road show to California today, seeking to strengthen ties with local business people and boost the organization's budget by soliciting corporate chieftains for special $100,000-a-year contributions.

Question: What's the 21st century going to mean for investors? Answer: The same thing the last 100 years have meant. Forget about robots and flying saucers. Investors will need solid companies with promising growth prospects. To help with that process, The Times has come up with 21 small-capitalization stocks whose futures look bright.

Leading U.S. company executives said the financial crisis in Asia will make the environment for profits tougher this year compared with 1997, according to a survey by the U.S. Business Council. About 64% of the 101 company chiefs surveyed said they see the environment for profits as more difficult in 1998, according to the survey of top executives of the nation's largest companies.

Sybase Inc. and Michaels Stores Inc. topped this year's list of the nation's poorest-performing companies drawn up by the $128-billion California Public Employees' Retirement System. CalPERS picked nine companies in need of improved stock prices as part of its quest to pressure lagging companies to improve their performance.

Highflying Internet-related stocks came crashing back to Earth on Thursday, as investors rushed to take what amounted to a couple of days' worth of profits in many of the issues. The declines in the recently red-hot sector were led by the smaller, more obscure names that had rocketed early in the week. Market Guide, a stock research company, plunged $8.02 to $11.50 on Nasdaq. Its shares had zoomed 190% on Tuesday, to $23, after the firm signed a distribution deal with America Online.

It's noon on the lot of Paramount Studios and yoga instructor Debbie Lehwalder Nietert is helping Paramount employees become more relaxed people--and better workers. "Allow the brain to become quiet, turning the focus inward. Allow the body and mind to become one," Nietert says to her class of about 20 yoga enthusiasts. Denise Scheerer is one of those. She goes to Nietert's yoga class on her lunch hour, she said, because yoga helps her handle the problems of her job as a manager at Paramount.

Merck & Co., the nation's largest drug company, said first-quarter profit rose a lower-than-expected 14% amid declining sales of its anti-cholesterol drugs, Zocor and Mevacor. In other earnings reports, Mattel Inc. and Hasbro Inc., the nation's largest toy makers, said first-quarter results were in line with diminished Wall Street forecasts, as both companies were hit by changes in buying at Toys R Us Inc., the nation's biggest toy retailer. Paramus, N.J.