News stories from Friday March 6, 1981

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

A reduction in federal employees will be made by the administration through "new permanent ceilings" that will replace the hiring freeze announced soon after President Reagan took office, the President said at a half-hour news conference, the second he has held. The employment ceilings are to reduce federal employment by 37,000 jobs by Sept. 30, 1982, at a two-year savings of $1.3 billion. [New York Times] Steadily rising energy prices resulted in a rise of eight-tenths of 1 percent in producer prices in February, the Labor Department reported. The increase in producer prices, at a 10 percent annual rate, meant that prices of goods ready for shipment to retailers were 10.9 percent higher than a year earlier. [New York Times] Fewer women and blacks will apparently be appointed to the federal bench by the Reagan administration than were named by the Carter administration, under procedures announced by Attorney General William French Smith. The procedures did not mention the affirmative action used by the Carter administration, but they will retain, with some modifications, the customary practice of choosing federal district judges through senatorial patronage. [New York Times] Employment rose slightly in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Nevertheless the administration still expects a weaker economy in the spring and the summer and sharply more unemployment. [New York Times] Treating schizophrenia with hemodialysis has become a subject of debate in the scientific community. Proponents of the treatment contend that a cure for schizophrenia might tie in removing a mysterious substance in the blood. Critics argue that there is increasing evidence that adapting the dialysis treatment for kidney patients to schizoids does not help the mental patients. [New York Times] A California trial on evolution ended with a ruling by a Superior Court judge in Sacramento that the State Department of Education and Board of Education policy on textbooks for science classes does not violate the rights of fundamentalists who object to the teaching of the theory of evolution. The suit was brought by a fundamentalist who sought to have the Biblical theory of creation offered in science classes as an alternative. [New York Times] Increased American military aid to El Salvador was defended by President Reagan on the ground that the United States was "helping the forces that are supporting human rights in El Salvador" against left-wing "terrorists." He said that the United States would view with "the gravest concern" any right-wing attempt to overthrow the government. He also said that the guerrillas fighting the government were the principal human rights violators in El Salvador. [New York Times] A 29-page policy paper on El Salvador discussed in a foreign affairs column in The New York Times yesterday was called "spurious" and "unofficial" by the State Department. The paper, reportedly prepared by officials of the National Security Council, the State and Defense Departments and the Central Intelligence Agency, challenged the policy of increased American military aid for El Salvador supported by the administration. [New York Times] More American military equipment will be sold to Saudi Arabia, President Reagan announced. Saying that there was a "growing threat" to American friends in the Persian Gulf area, the President said the decision to provide the Saudis will more aid was part of an overall policy of halting "serious deterioration" in Western security interests in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 964.62 (0.00, 0.00%)
S&P Composite: 129.85 (-0.08, -0.06%)
Arms Index: 0.99

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	796	20.80
Declines	677	17.53
Unchanged	406	5.61
Total Volume		43.94

* 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*
March 5, 1981	964.62	129.93	45.37
March 4, 1981	971.44	130.86	47.25
March 3, 1981	966.02	130.56	48.73
March 2, 1981	977.99	132.01	47.71
February 27, 1981	974.58	131.27	53.20
February 26, 1981	966.81	130.10	60.31
February 25, 1981	954.40	128.52	45.71
February 24, 1981	946.10	127.39	43.96
February 23, 1981	945.23	127.35	39.59
February 20, 1981	936.09	126.58	41.90