News stories from Tuesday November 24, 1981

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

An easing of inflation was reflected in the Consumer Price Index. With housing prices falling and increases in food costs slowing, the government reported that the key barometer rose only four-tenths of 1 percent in October, the smallest increase in six months. Spread over a year, such a monthly rise would add up to an annual inflation rate of only 4.8 percent. Economists expect continued small increases for several months. [New York Times] A special prosecutor was requested by 18 Senate Democrats in the case involving Richard Allen, President Reagan's national security adviser. The Senators said that Attorney General William French Smith should seek an independent prosecutor at once to insure a credible investigation of Mr. Allen's receipt of a $1,000 cash payment from Japanese journalists who interviewed Nancy Reagan at the White House.Allen was told he was receiving money when he was handed $1,000 in cash in an envelope at the White House last Jan. 21, according to a Japanese journalist. She wrote in a Japanese magazine that she asked Mr. Allen for a receipt for the money when it was given to him. [New York Times] The government returned to normal after the half-day furlough Monday of "non-essential" employees that was ordered by President Reagan after he vetoed as "budget busting" a stopgap resolution needed to keep the government solvent. A tentative accord will expire on Dec. 15. [New York Times] Military spending was championed by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who told the Republican Governors Association that the Pentagon's budget could not be cut to provide funds for the states to cope with the recession. His statements subdued, but did not silence, objections by Middle Western governors to the Defense Department's relative immunity from budget reductions. [New York Times] The offshore energy leasing program is being pressed by Interior Secretary James Watt in the face of bitter opposition from environmentalists, fishermen, some state governments and a mass of litigation. The accelerated program is designed to offer a billion acres of the continental shelf to the oil industry over the next five years. A key focus of the dispute is the Georges Bank, the rich and turbulent spawning ground off New England. [New York Times] Budget cuts in the Census Bureau have caused it to delay or cancel reports of important findings from the 1980 count and to say it cannot afford to conduct a 1985 survey that Congress has mandated. Repeated delays in the issuance of detailed census data have brought complaints from specialists who use the figures to market products or carry out public planning. [New York Times] A Census Bureau report on housing said that the estimated national median value for homes was $47,200 and the median rent was $198 a month. In New York, the median value for a home was $45,600, in New Jersey it was $60,200, and in Connecticut it was $65,600. [New York Times] Washington-bound law students appear increasingly to be most interested in making money and contacts. The urge to work for the public good, which once motivated many young lawyers, seems to many observers to have decreased in the last five to 10 years and to be more and more like a quaint relic of the 60's. [New York Times] Deep Soviet distrust of Washington was reported by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. The West German leader said that Leonid Brezhnev had convinced him of Soviet interest in arms reduction, but that the Soviet leader was unable to acknowledge that the Reagan administration wants peace. [New York Times] Hopes about the arms talks in Geneva next week were expressed by the Reagan administration. It said it hoped that Leonid Brezhnev's professed willingness to consider reductions in medium-range nuclear forces in Europe was a sign that Moscow was "beginning to see the advantages" of seeking genuine arms cuts. [New York Times] Formation of the Sinai peace force faces rising problems. Reagan administration officials and Israeli sources said that the United States had urged Israel to accept the participation of Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands despite their statements indicating support for the Palestine Liberation Organization. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 870.24 (+18.45, +2.17%)
S&P Composite: 123.51 (+1.91, +1.57%)
Arms Index: 0.61

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,057	37.17
Declines	501	10.71
Unchanged	414	5.32
Total Volume		53.20

* 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*
November 23, 1981	851.79	121.60	45.27
November 20, 1981	852.93	121.71	52.01
November 19, 1981	844.75	120.71	48.72
November 18, 1981	844.06	120.26	49.98
November 17, 1981	850.17	121.15	43.19
November 16, 1981	845.03	120.24	43.74
November 13, 1981	855.88	121.67	45.57
November 12, 1981	860.54	123.19	55.71
November 11, 1981	857.12	122.92	41.94
November 10, 1981	853.98	122.70	53.93