News stories from Wednesday May 6, 1981

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

Two liberal budget plans were rejected in the House in lopsided votes that underscored the liberals' loss of power. Sponsors of the two alternatives con-ceded the measures were foredoomed, but insisted on introducing them as symbolic gestures. The votes were a prelude to the scheduled adoption of a $689 billion budget endorsed by President Reagan. [New York Times] Higher interest rates were predicted by Treasury Secretary Donald Regan. He also said he expected the rates to remain high for "several months" and added that the increases since March had added $2 billion to $5 billion to the deficit in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Mr. Regan termed this year's budget "a disaster" and predicted that the Treasury's overall borrowing needs this year would total $75 billion to $80 billion. [New York Times] A military crash killed all 21 persons aboard. The Maryland police said that an Air Force tracking plane had exploded and plummeted into a field 45 miles west of Baltimore. The plane was on a training mission. [New York Times] A memorial to Vietnam War veterans has been designed by Maya Lin, a 21-year-old Yale University architecture student. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund announced that her design had been chosen over those submitted by 1,420 others, many of them noted architects, sculptors and landscape architects. [New York Times] Advocates of the Voting Rights Act urged Congress to extend the 1965 law for 10 years in its present form. The appeals were made by civil rights and labor leaders in testimony before a House subcommittee. The ranking Republican on the panel challenged all the witnesses, saying they failed to give the Southern states credit for progress made since 1965. [New York Times] Frank Fitzsimmons died of cancer in a San Diego hospital at the age of 73. Mr. Fitzsimmons, president of the Teamsters' union, had been ill for more than a year. The former truck driver rose through the ranks of his union as a quintessential loyalist. [New York Times] A soldier implicated in the slayings of four black men in the Buffalo area told Army nurses at Fort Benning, Ga., that he had also killed black men in New York City, according to law enforcement officials. They said that Joseph Christopher, an Army private who is white, had given no motive for the New York City murders, except to say, "I had to." [New York Times] A U.S. mission will go to Guatemala next week, according to State Department officials. They said that a special envoy, retired Gen. Vernon Walters, would discuss American conditions for restoring military aid to the Guatemalan government to combat leftist insurgents. International organizations have accused Guatemala's security forces of widespread killing of political dissidents. [New York Times] El Salvador has rejected mediation in its conflict with leftist guerrillas. The offer to help the combatants try to reach a political settlement was made by the Socialist International, the worldwide Social Democratic organization. [New York Times] The closing of Libya's mission in Washington and the expulsion of the mission staff was ordered by the United States because of "a wide range of Libyan provocations and misconduct." Reagan administration officials cited alleged efforts by Libyans to murder opponents of Libya's revolutionary regime and Libyan activities in Chad, the Sudan and Egypt. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 973.34 (+0.90, +0.09%)
S&P Composite: 130.78 (+0.46, +0.35%)
Arms Index: 0.70

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	822	25.78
Declines	674	14.89
Unchanged	433	6.43
Total Volume		47.10

* in millions of shares

Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish.

Market Index Trends
Date	DJIA	S&P	Volume*
May 5, 1981	972.44	130.32	48.99
May 4, 1981	979.11	130.67	40.66
May 1, 1981	995.59	132.72	48.35
April 30, 1981	997.75	132.81	47.96
April 29, 1981	1004.32	133.05	53.34
April 28, 1981	1016.93	134.33	58.21
April 27, 1981	1024.05	135.48	51.08
April 24, 1981	1020.35	135.14	59.90
April 23, 1981	1010.27	133.94	64.20
April 22, 1981	1007.02	134.14	60.65