News stories from Friday October 30, 1981

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

A balanced budget by 1984 is unlikely, Congress was told by Treasury Secretary Donald Regan. His comment at a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee seemed to be a portent of an official statement that President Reagan's campaign pledge could not be carried out without hurting the economy. But a White House spokesman said earlier that the President had not given up his aim of a balanced budget. Mr. Regan responded coolly to efforts by the Senate Budget Committee's chairman, Pete Domenici, to elicit support for the substantial tax increases in 1982-84 that the Senate Republican leadership favors and expects to explain to the White House staff next week. [New York Times] Mobil Corporation is offering $5 billion for the Marathon Oil Company of Findlay, Ohio, the nation's 17th-largest oil concern. Marathon, which was taken by surprise, has been preparing for several months to resist a takeover that it had been expecting. It is known to have arranged at least $11.3 billion in loans for its battle fund. [New York Times] Sharing of municipal service costs with private industry is being sought by local governments across the country as a result of cuts in federal aid and local resistance to increased taxes. Private participation in municipal investment was made possible by a 1961 tax law that provides financial initiatives. [New York Times] A standoff continued at a state prison in Graterford, Pa., where four convicts have been holding 38 hostages since late Wednesday. A police officer was grazed by a bullet fired from inside the prison and increased fears over the hostages' safety. [New York Times] The vote for Secretary General was deadlocked at the United Nations. In balloting over two days, the Security Council was unable to choose between the incumbent, Kurt Waldheim of Austria and Salim A. Salim, Foreign Minister of Tanzania. China has repeatedly turned down Mr. Waldheim, and the United States has cast it vote six times against Mr. Salim. It's "a deadlock within a deadlock," Jeane Kirkpatrick, the United States delegate, said. [New York Times] An end to strikes in Poland was demanded by the government and the Solidarity union. Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski asked Parliament to take steps to end the strikes and said that if the strikes did not cease the government was prepared to take steps to end them. The Solidarity leadership in Gdansk called for an immediate end to all strikes. The walkouts, the union officials said, have taken on "an uncontrolled character" that "threatens the destruction of the union." In a cabinet shake-up, the Prime Minister dismissed five ministers and a deputy Prime Minister to open the government to persons who are not members of the Communist Party. [New York Times] The U.S. reassessed its original stand on Saudi Arabia's peace proposals for the Middle East, which it dismissed when they were announced in August. The chief aims of the Saudi proposals are complete Israeli withdrawal from all lands occupied in the 1967 war and establishment of a Palestinian state. The proposals in recent days have been under review in the State Department, which said that while it is in favor of some of the proposals, "we have problems" with others. [New York Times] Yasser Arafat endorsed the Saudi plan for the Middle East. The leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization said in an interview published in a Beirut newspaper that he welcomed the plan because it calls for "coexistence" between Israel and the Arabs, but he did not say that he would recognise the Israeli nation. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 852.55 (+19.60, +2.35%)
S&P Composite: 121.89 (+2.83, +2.38%)
Arms Index: 0.44

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,211	48.45
Declines	369	6.50
Unchanged	330	4.62
Total Volume		59.57

* 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 29, 1981	832.95	119.06	40.07
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