News stories from Monday January 12, 1981

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

The Iranian Parliament was forced to postpone at least until Wednesday debate on two urgent government bills designed to clear the way for reaching agreement with the United States on the release of the American hostages. The delay dealt a blow to efforts to achieve a breakthrough before the end of President Carter's term next Tuesday. A deputy speaker of the parliament, explaining the delay , said not not enough members of Iran's Council of Guardians were present for the debate to proceed.Washington was warily hopeful about an early resolution of the 14-month hostage dispute. President Carter said that the prospect for reaching an accord to free the Americans in Iran before he leaves office "looks better" in light of the latest developments in Teheran, but he cautioned that he was still not able to predict success in the negotiations. [New York Times] Efforts to obtain summaries of tapes of 100 hours of 1973 conversations between Richard Nixon and Alexander Haig continued. The National Archivist said he would supply the logs to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is considering Mr. Haig's nomination as Secretary of State, if Mr. Nixon raised no objection by Saturday. The former President's lawyer said he did not know whether an objection would be filed. [New York Times] The new State Department team has been largely selected by Mr. Haig, who plans to announce his choices after the Senate confirms his appointment as Secretary of State. Officials said that Mr. Haig seemed to have selected a mixture of career professionals and political figures. [New York Times] Another cabinet nominee was grilled by Senators at his confirmation hearing. The Senators asked questions about incidents seemingly linking the construction company headed by Raymond Donovan, the Secretary of Labor-designate, to figures allegedly involved in political corruption and labor racketeering. He repeatedly said that neither he nor the company had ever done anything illegal or improper. [New York Times] A Puerto Rican nationalist group, according to a caller, was responsible for what officials called the most severe attack ever made against a military installation on the island. Terrorists destroyed nine military jets and damaged two with time bombs at a major Air National Guard Base. The explosions injured no one. [New York Times] Opposition to an open-housing order issued by a federal district judge is widespread in the Cleveland suburb of Parma. The judge struck down local housing ordinances of the virtually all-white city as racially discriminatory. Some Parma residents said they believed that the Reagan administration would void the decision. [New York Times] A gas shortage nearly paralyzed Lowell, Mass., and Cape Cod. Schools, some businesses and many industries closed after utilities declared an "energy emergency" to alleviate the natural gas shortage caused by the in-tensely cold weather that is driving up demand and depleting reserves throughout the Northeast. [New York Times] Last year was the driest since 1977, according to the United States Geological Survey. It also reported that water levels remained below normal in many parts of the country, particularly the Northeast. [New York Times] New concern over cigarette smoking was expressed by the Surgeon General. He said that low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes confered some "limited" reduction in the risk of lung cancer, but that there was little evidence that they reduced the risk of other major diseases linked to smoking. He also warned about possible health hazards from artificial flavoring additives that include some substances that produce carcinogens when burned. [New York Times] Iran's war effort is being hampered by the Western sanctions against Teheran, according to a statement by President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr quoted by the Iranian press agency. [New York Times] Clashes in rural areas of El Salvador were reported as a South African and two American journalists were injured when a mine exploded as they were driving to a village said to be under attack by leftist guerrillas. [New York Times] A Bedouin leader in Israel was slain by a guman in a jeep in Jerusalem. The tribal chief, Hammad Abu Rabia, was a member of Parliament. Many Bedouins were said to be dissatisfied with his performance in his efforts to reach a compromise with the government over plans to expropriate Bedouin desert land for a new air base. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 968.77 (+0.08, +0.01%)
S&P Composite: 133.52 (+0.04, +0.03%)
Arms Index: 1.18

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	928	23.82
Declines	633	19.18
Unchanged	364	5.76
Total Volume		48.76

* 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*
January 9, 1981	968.69	133.48	50.18
January 8, 1981	965.70	133.06	55.35
January 7, 1981	980.89	135.08	92.88
January 6, 1981	1004.69	138.12	67.40
January 5, 1981	992.66	137.97	58.71
January 2, 1981	972.78	136.34	28.86
December 31, 1980	963.99	135.76	41.21
December 30, 1980	962.03	135.33	39.75
December 29, 1980	960.58	135.03	36.05
December 26, 1980	966.38	136.57	16.13