News stories from Thursday October 22, 1981

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

The flight controllers' union lost its right to represent the controllers because of their illegal national strike that began Aug. 3. The ruling was issued by the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The union appealed the decision, and a federal appeals court issued a temporary stay of the decertification. Nearly all of the 11,500 strikers have been dismissed. [New York Times] General Motors reported a loss of $468 million for the third quarter of 1981. The company attributed it to sluggish sales, rising costs and the expense of bringing out new models. The loss was larger than expected, and it raised the possibility of an unprecedented two consecutive years of losses for the world's largest auto maker. [New York Times] Michigan's economy is worsening along with the state's dominant automobile industry. Unemployment, after a short summer dip, is holding at more than 11 percent, tax revenues are declining and, instead of the upturn that was predicted for the fall, the state is getting deeper and deeper into recession. [New York Times] Massive farm legislation was passed by a voice vote in the House. The four year bill, which would provide slightly more than $2 billion to support farm prices in the current fiscal year, was denounced by opponents as a "budget-busting, deficit-ridden" measure. President Reagan has threatened to veto the legislation unless much higher projected subsidies in 1984 and 1985 are reduced in a House-Senate conference. [New York Times] Antiterrorist raids were carried out by federal agents and the police who searched five apartments in New York City and Westchester County as new links emerged between radical and black activists and the gang that killed two police officers and a Brink's guard in a $1.6 million armored-car holdup in Rockland County. The authorities found weapons, ammunition, walkie-talkies, bloody clothing and literature on radical causes. [New York Times] Helicopter personnel for Libya were sought by Kenneth Beck, an Army veteran who works for Edwin P. Wilson, a former American intelligence agent living in Libya, according to several persons familiar with the recruiting effort in Alabama. They said that Mr. Beck tried last summer to recruit a dozen American pilots and mechanics to maintain helicopters for the Libyan air force. [New York Times] Division over the sale of Awacs planes to Saudi Arabia continued. Senator Ernest Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina, declared his opposition to the sale of five radar planes and other advanced military equipment, and Senator Warren Rudman, Republican of New Hampshire, announced he would support the plan. [New York Times] Labor unrest accelerated in Poland. The national leadership of the independent union met in Gdansk to try to resolve a rash of wildcat strikes and strike threats by local chapters and to work out a response to what it says is government harassment. [New York Times] The President stressed conciliation at the opening session of the conference of 14 developing and eight industrialized countries at the Mexican resort of Cancun. Mr. Reagan renewed a commitment to negotiations intended to narrow the gap between rich and poor nations, but he listed conditions for United States participation that suggested there was no significant change in Washington's basic approach to third-world issues. [New York Times] Delegates reacted coolly to President Reagan's call for multiple forums to negotiate third-world development. Many of the 22 delegations at the conference of industrialized and developing countries seek a prompt start in global talks designed to put together a package for aid, trade and finance to benefit the poor nations. [New York Times] Recalling the appeasement of the Axis powers by the Western democracies before the devastation of World War II, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger questioned whether the West had the will to meet the Soviet military challenge. He spoke to the Royal Institute of International Studies in London. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 848.27 (-2.76, -0.32%)
S&P Composite: 119.64 (-0.46, -0.38%)
Arms Index: 0.97

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	500	12.25
Declines	949	22.46
Unchanged	422	5.92
Total Volume		40.63

* 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*
October 21, 1981	851.03	120.10	48.48
October 20, 1981	851.88	120.28	51.53
October 19, 1981	847.13	118.98	41.58
October 16, 1981	851.69	119.19	37.80
October 15, 1981	856.26	119.71	42.82
October 14, 1981	850.65	118.80	40.25
October 13, 1981	865.58	120.78	43.07
October 12, 1981	869.48	121.21	30.05
October 9, 1981	873.00	121.45	50.06
October 8, 1981	878.14	122.31	47.08