Business Notes BROKERAGES

Aftershocks from October's stock crash rumbled through Wall Street last week as several shaken brokerage houses took steps to bolster their financial health. First, Paine Webber agreed to sell up to 25% of its stock to Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance of Japan for $300 million. The brokerage, which lost $16.5 million in October, welcomed the investment as a defense against takeovers.

E.F. Hutton, on the other hand, sold itself to Shearson Lehman Bros. for about $1 billion. That will create a brokerage giant with $5.4 billion in capital, second in the U.S. only to Merrill Lynch's $8 billion, and a sales force of 12,300, larger by 800 than the thundering herd's.

Kidder Peabody, which was reeling from a $25 million insider-trading fine even before the market crash, is slashing its operations. The firm said it would lay off 1,000 employees, or about 13% of its work force.