News stories from Friday April 3, 1981

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

President Reagan had a fever of several degrees above the normal temperature of 98 degrees early and late in the day in an otherwise uneventful and remarkable recovery from an assassination attempt Monday. The President's surgeon said he expected Mr. Reagan to return to the White House early next week and he predicted that the President would be able to resume work part-time in the Oval Office by April 13. [New York Times] The explosive bullets that struck President Reagan, a Secret Service agent and a police officer Monday malfunctioned and did not detonate on impact, the F.B.I. confirmed. But officials said they believed that the bullet that injured James Brady, the President's press secretary, exploded when it struck his head. The bullet lodged in the neck of the police officer, Thomas Delahanty, was removed in a three-hour operation, and he was in stable but serious condition. [New York Times] Large increases in oil prices were key factors in a 1.3 percent rise in the Producer Price Index in March, to an annual rate of 16.8 percent, the government reported. However, outside of the energy area, the measure of what producers charge retailers for finished goods continued to show a moderate increase. [New York Times] The jobless rate was unchanged in March as new workers continued to enter the labor force at the same pace that the nation's economy produced new jobs. The Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate last month was 7.3 percent of the workforce, the same as in February. The jobless level has been essentially the same since last summer. [New York Times] Food stamps are a prime target of President Reagan's budget-cutting blueprint. The program, with 22 million participants who would receive $12.47 billion worth of stamps in the coming fiscal year under present law, is probably the most visible of all federal support programs. The administration proposes to trim the program by at least $1.5 billion. [New York Times] The ailing Trident submarine program is the Navy's biggest problem. In 1976, the Ohio, the first of a planned fleet of 27 ballistic missile craft, was the pride of the Navy's future. But now, as the Ohio is being readied for sea trials more than two years behind schedule and $280 million beyond original cost estimates, Trident's future is so clouded that the viability of the entire program is being reviewed. [New York Times] A Chicago school desegregation plan was announced by officials. The preliminary program calls for the transfer of 41,706 of the system's 463,278 pupils in the next school year. The Board of Education, citing the scarcity of whites in the district, proposed the pairing of neighborhood schools to achieve desegregation where possible, but said that up to 25,000 pupils might have to be bused. [New York Times] Canada's constitutional dispute worsened. Eight of the 10 provincial premiers are to meet in Ottawa on April 16 in their strongest bid yet to defeat the goverment's effort to gain a charter independent of Britain and containing new rights provisions. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau vowed to fight for his plan. [New York Times] Moscow is poised for intervention in Poland, according to the United States, which issued another warning against such "unjustified action." Informed sources said that the Soviet Union had begun airlifting helicopters into the Soviet military district in southwest Poland, in a move that appeared to be on a small scale to avoid attracting attention and generating alarm among the Poles.Moscow urged Polish Communists to be vigilant. For the second consecutive day, the Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda implied strong Kremlin disapproval of the willingness of the Polish leadership to make concessions to the independent union. [New York Times] Anti-government rioting in Yugoslavia by Albanian separatists prompted the authorities to deploy tanks and troops throughout Kosovo Province. Residents of the provincial capital said that thousands had rampaged through the streets, smashing shop windows and factory machines. [New York Times] An Israeli arms request to Washington was reported by Israeli and Reagan administration sources. They said that Israel was seeking an outright gift of 15 more F-15 fighters and access to an American spy satellite to compensate for Washington's planned sale of advanced military equipment to Saudi Arabia. [New York Times] New repression in Uganda is apparently being pressed by the new government of President Milton Obote. It is responding to insurrection with summary executions and other tactics carried out by Idi Amin, who was overthrown two years ago. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1007.11 (-1.90, -0.19%)
S&P Composite: 135.49 (-0.83, -0.61%)
Arms Index: 1.08

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	638	17.53
Declines	888	26.24
Unchanged	368	4.91
Total Volume		48.68

* 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*
April 2, 1981	1009.01	136.32	52.57
April 1, 1981	1014.14	136.57	54.89
March 31, 1981	1003.87	136.00	50.97
March 30, 1981	992.16	134.28	33.49
March 27, 1981	994.78	134.65	46.93
March 26, 1981	1005.76	136.27	60.37
March 25, 1981	1015.22	137.11	56.34
March 24, 1981	996.13	134.67	66.40
March 23, 1981	1004.23	135.69	57.87
March 20, 1981	992.80	134.08	61.97