News stories from Thursday October 29, 1981

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

More evidence of a recession was provided by the government's index of leading economic indicators, which dropped 2.7 percent in September. The decline, reported by the Commerce Department, was the fourth in the last five months and the largest since last year's recession. A debate over possible tax increases to help trim the growing budget deficit is intensifying in the Reagan administration. [New York Times] A unified price for crude oil that is ex-pected to increase the retail cost of gasoline and heating oil in the United States by 3 cents or more a gallon was agreed on by the 13 members of OPEC. The new price was set at $34 a barrel for the basic crudes produced by each member of the exporting cartel. The agreement was reached at a special one-day meeting in Geneva. [New York Times] Major oil fraud charges were issued by a federal grand jury in Tulsa, Okla. It indicted Robert Sutton, the owner of two oil companies, on criminal charges of having violated price controls on oil that brought him hundreds of millions of dollars and resulted in consumer overcharges estimated at $2 billion to $4 billion. [New York Times] Deep criticism of the federal courts was expressed by Attorney General William French Smith. He accused them of "constitutionally dubious and unwise intrusions upon the legislative domain" and vowed to oppose such "subjective judicial policy-making." He outlined the Reagan administration's plans for demanding judicial restraint in such areas as abortion rights, desegregation, sexual and racial quotas as remedies for job discrimination, the constitutional rights of aliens and prisoners, and protection of the environment. [New York Times] Thirty-eight hostages were being held in a Pennslyvania state prison as officials tried to negotiate with four of the inmates, including one who killed two wardens in 1975. Outside a kitchen area where the inmates were holding the captives, about 200 heavily armed state troopers in riot gear stood by. The prison is in Graterford, 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia. [New York Times] Environmentalists gained a victory as Interior Secretary James Watt discarded plans for a hydroelectric project that would have caused wide fluctuations in the flow of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. A leading conservationist said that the project would have been "calamitous" for the canyon's wildlife. [New York Times] President Reagan assured Israel in a message to Prime Minister Menachem Begin that the United States was "fully committed" to helping Israel retain "its military and technological edge" over the Arab countries. After his Senate victory Wednesday on the sale of Awacs radar planes to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Reagan also sent a message to King Khalid urging "close cooperation" in seeking "peace, security and prosperity" in the Middle East. [New York Times] The "deep gratitude" of Saudis was expressed by the Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia. He said "the Saudi people will undoubtedly never forget" the approval of the Awacs sale, and he asserted that the planes would help stabilize the Persian Gulf. [New York Times] Israel's cabinet met in special session and issued a statement of regret over the arms sale. The communique accused Saudi Arabia of being an opponent of peace and a financial backer of terrorism. [New York Times] The pledges made by the President to the Senate to win permission to sell the sophisticated arms came under increased scrutiny, but the White House was not as specific on them as some Senators had appeared to believe. Asked whether the vows included an agreement on "joint crewing" on the planes, a White House official replied, "As such, no." [New York Times] Approval of Spain's entry into NATO was voted by the lower house of Parliament after three days of occasionally stormy debate. The proposal carried by a vote of 186 to 146. [New York Times] Sweden blocked Soviet efforts to rescue a Soviet submarine that ran aground Tuesday near a Swedish naval base. The authorities in Stockholm said that, as a result, Moscow had agreed to allow the Swedes to do the salvaging. A second, unidentified submarine was spotted six miles inside Swedish waters. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 832.95 (-4.66, -0.56%)
S&P Composite: 119.06 (-0.39, -0.33%)
Arms Index: 1.04

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	589	13.36
Declines	871	20.57
Unchanged	437	6.13
Total Volume		40.07

* 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 28, 1981	837.61	119.45	48.10
October 27, 1981	838.38	119.29	53.03
October 26, 1981	830.96	118.16	38.20
October 23, 1981	837.99	118.60	41.98
October 22, 1981	848.27	119.64	40.63
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