Only marginally profitable of late, Salomon, the nation's biggest investment house, has been hard hit by volatile trading markets and thin profit margins caused in part by increased competition from commercial banks in the United States and Europe. Facing similar pressures, several other Wall Street firms have disclosed that they, too, are taking hard looks at where to cut costs and what businesses they want to pursue. [ Page D8. ] Mostly Better-Paid Salomon said that from now on it would concentrate on businesses with high profit margins, such as investment banking, where it already deals in mergers and acquisitions.

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