AS steel wage negotiations started, the best guess was that the C.I.O.

Steelworkers intend to ask for a hike of 180 to 25-c- an hour. Steelmen, how ever, think they will settle for about a dime, which the companies are willing to give. A 10-c- raise might push steel prices up $4 a ton. Both sides think that there is little chance of a strike.

THE battle over tax cuts has grown so fierce that President Eisen hower called Speaker Martin and Ma jority Leader Halleck to the White House to get their help in heading off New Yorker Dan Reed's bill to cut income taxes next month. House Republican leaders think that if enough pressure is brought to bear, Reed will drop his bill, go along with Ike's program.

QUEEN Elizabeth's coronation has been oversold. Not only is trans atlantic transportation still available, but some London hotels still have vacancies. Scalpers who loaded up with high-priced coronation tickets are un loading, in some cases at little profit.

Top rate for a choice seat in a club or house along the procession route, which was $275 last fall, is now $200, including champagne, lunch and large-screen TV to follow the procession elsewhere.

FLOYD ODLUM'S Atlas Corp., which has the knack of getting in & out of companies at the right time, has done it again. Last week Odium sold his Sunray Oil holdings for a $4,000,000 profit after only 18 months' ownership; two months ago he netted $5,000,000 from his sale of Consolidated Vultee to General Dynamics. With more than $20 million cash in the till, Odium is now looking around for like ly buys for Atlas.

THE wheat crop will be so big-more than a billion bushels -- that, under present law, Agriculture Secretary Benson will have to proclaim acreage quotas, highly unpopular with farmers. The law calls for quotas if production exceeds domestic needs and exports by 15%. Republican legislators hope to get Secretary Benson off the hook by amending the law to double wheat reserve requirements, thus avert quotas.

DELTA Airlines, having merged with Chicago & Southern, is now looking over Capital, which would provide a lucrative New York -- to-Atlanta route. Delta, which one hoped to merge with Northeast, will probably drop the idea.

STOCKS on the pay-as-you-go plan may be the next move by the New York Stock Exchange's supersalesman, President Keith Funston, to lure in the little investor. The plan would be less costly than the present charges (up to 8 1/2%) for buying mutual-fund shares on time. The exchange would get banks to hold the stock, and investors would take possession as they pay for it. Immediate goal: 1,500,000 more shareholders in three years (added to the 6,500,000 today). " POLYETHYLENE, the wonder plastic used for insulation, squeeze bottles, refrigerator containers, etc., will soon get a new producer. Eastman Kodak signed a licensing agreement with Britain's Imperial Chemical Industries and Kodak's subsidiary, Texas Eastman, to build a big plant (20 million Ibs. a year) at Longview, Texas.

WALL Street sentiment is running about five to one in favor of a further market rise. Sample opinion from Bache & Co.: "The next lift in the spring-summer recovery movement " could bring the Dow-Jones industrial average to 286 (it was at 278 last week).

"BOEING has found Pratt & Whitney's J57 jet engine so satisfactory for the B-52 bomber that it will use the power plant for its prototype jet transport, due to fly next year. The J57 (estimated h.p. 10,000) is reportedly the most powerful in the world.

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