MARRIAGE SLOWDOWN will nip market for houses, furniture, etc. Dropping steadily since last August, marriage rate this year is about 10% below year ago. Reasons: low birth rate of Depression 1930s combined with today's economic slump and living-cost spiral.

JET NOISE PROBLEM has been whipped, says Boeing. Three years and $5,000,000 spent on research produced a sound suppresser that Boeing claims will make its four-jet 707s quieter than big piston planes. The device, still secret, breaks up jet exhaust into many small streams, diffuses them to squelch noise.

DINERS' CLUB, which now has 600,000 charge customers, will get its first big competition from American Express, which is expected to soon start signing up restaurants and hotels for its own charge system for meals, rooms, travel, etc.

BILLION-DOLLAR CLUB gained seven new members last year, now numbers 48. Newcomers (with sales in billions) :

North American Aviation $1.244

United Aircraft 1.233

R. J. Reynolds Tobacco 1.053

Cities Service 1.046

American Can 1.006

IBM 1.000

General Foods 1.000

LOW-PRICED ALUMINUM cans are starting to roll out, eventually will reduce shipping costs and lighten housewife's grocery bag. United States Can Corp. will sell 6-oz. seamless aluminum aerosol cans for as little as 4.5-c- each, figures price is slightly less than average for equivalent steel-based "tin" can.

HUGE NAVY ORDERS are coming for Lockheed's turboprop Electra. In hot race, it won Navy's nod to be prime land-based antisubmarine plane in jet age. Insiders expect Navy to buy some 100 Electras for about $4,000,000 each over next few years, figure Navy will eventually replace all its 500 Lockheed Neptune antisub fighters with Electras.

SWIMMING-POOL DEALERS expect to install 53,000 pools worth almost $600 million this year v. last year's peak 44,000 pools worth some $500 million. Prices range generally from $3,200 to $7,350.

FIRST OIL PIPELINE to California is starting to carry crude from Four Corners region, where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet. The 16-in. line, which runs 750 miles, will pump up to 70,000 bbl. per day, will ease oil deficiency on West Coast and spur exploration for new sources in Four Corners area.

POLAND'S POZNAN FAIR will attract splashiest U.S. show yet made behind Iron Curtain. Heartened because 1,135,000 people visited U.S. display last year, Commerce Department will erect $175,000 glass-and-aluminum permanent building, plus a TV studio and four smaller buildings. For 1958 fair, U.S. will spend $524,000 in all.

U.A.W. SALARY CUTS are on way to offset current $200,000 monthly deficit caused by auto layoffs. Salaries of President Walter Reuther ($22,000) and 24 other executives will be slashed 10% ; some 100 staffers will be laid off. Big worry: U.A.W. now has $24 million in strike fund, far short of $50 million goal set for early June, when auto contracts will have expired.

BUILDER William Zeckendorf will get $22.5 million loan from Prudential Insurance Co. for his Courthouse Square project to cover two blocks in Denver. He has put up a four-floor department store, by next year will complete a 21-story, 1,000-room hotel with 2,000 underground parking spaces.

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