News stories from Friday April 16, 1982

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

Budget negotiations with Congress "were approaching the climactic stage," President Reagan said, promising a "constructive and conciliatory spirit" in deciding whether to compromise on his economic program. He told a group of editors that "we must join together to bring down deficits, bring down interest rates and revive the economy." His remarks were interpreted by White House aides as yet another conciliatory signal to Congress that he might be prepared to shift his position on the budget. [New York Times] The sale of federal lands in the West to private bidders, which has been proposed by the Reagan administration to help reduce the national budget deficit, threatens to start a new controversy over public land policy in the West. It is likely that opposition will come not only from environmentalists but also from ranchers and politicians who have so far supported the President and Interior Secretary James Watt. In an attempt to soothe the concerns, the Interior Department issued a statement emphasizing that no decisions have been made yet. [New York Times] A strike halted Boston's transit lines unexpectedly for 13 hours, leaving 300,000 commuters to find other ways to their jobs in the city. Pressure for the stoppage had been building for months as the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority cut jobs and benefits in an effort to reduce costs on one of the nation's most expensive transit systems. [New York Times] Computer plagiarism and vandalism are problems at universities where computers have become teaching instruments. In the last year, both Michigan and Yale have adopted stringent regulations against computer abuse. At Harvard, whose faculty is drafting similar regulations, eight students have reportedly been forced to leave in the last two years because of computer abuses. [New York Times] New U.S.-Soviet grain talks have been agreed to by the Reagan administration. The talks will be first between the two countries since the declaration of martial law in Poland last December. The meeting will take place in Paris on May 21 and 22, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas and Senator Roger Jepsen of Iowa said. [New York Times] British warships are on schedule on their journey to the Falkland Islands and are less than a week's sailing time from the islands. Sources in London said that the last units of the task force made up of about 25 ships had left their rendezvous point off Ascension Island, in mid-ocean between Africa and South America, early Thursday, following ships that had left Monday or Tuesday. [New York Times] Britons deeply resent the way the United States has dealt with the Falklands crisis. The Argentines also have been critical of the United States, believing that it was favoring Britain. But many Britons have been offended by what they feel is the lack of more overt support by senior American officials, including President Reagan and Secretary of State Alexander Haig. Perhaps the strongest resentment has been directed at Jeane Kirkpatrick, the United States delegate to the United Nations, who attended a dinner a the Argentine Embassy in Washington on April 2, the day the Falklands were seized by Argentina. [New York Times] Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel received a reassuring letter from President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and an Israeli spokesman said there was "no reason to reconsider the Israeli government's resolution to complete the withdrawal" from Sinai by April 25. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 843.42 (+3.81, +0.45%)
S&P Composite: 116.81 (+0.46, +0.40%)
Arms Index: 0.91

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	954	32.52
Declines	491	15.31
Unchanged	438	8.06
Total Volume		55.89

* 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 15, 1982	839.61	116.35	45.69
April 14, 1982	838.09	115.83	45.15
April 13, 1982	841.04	115.99	48.66
April 12, 1982	841.32	116.00	46.51
April 8, 1982	842.94	116.22	60.18
April 7, 1982	836.85	115.46	53.14
April 6, 1982	839.33	115.36	43.20
April 5, 1982	835.33	114.73	46.90
April 2, 1982	838.57	115.12	59.86
April 1, 1982	833.24	113.79	57.10