Business Notes WALL STREET

Is this the Big One? That question resounds these days not only in earthquake- wary Los Angeles but also on Wall Street. Tremors shook the stock market last week, fanning fears that a major correction or a crash may be coming. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 91.55 points on Tuesday, a record one-day drop. The average also set a mark for a one-week decline: 158.78, to close at 2482.21.

) What set the bears running was fears of rising interest rates. On Wednesday, banks raised the prime lending rate from 8.75% to 9.25%, the highest level since early 1986. Even so, the panic fell short of the Big One. Tuesday's drop, though large in point size, represented a market decline of only 3.47% because of the market's high level, compared with a plunge of 12.8% in the Black Thursday crash of 1929.