News stories from Thursday June 26, 1980

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

France has developed a neutron bomb, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing announced. He said that a prototype of the warhead had been tested and that Paris would decide in two or three years whether to put it into production. The anti-personnel weapon destroys living beings with radiation emissions but avoids major structural damage from blast and heat. [New York Times] The prospect of tax cuts mounted as Senate Democrats, fearful that Wednesday's Republican call for immediate action could hurt them politically, said they would produce their own plan by Sept. 3. The pledge, made by 14 top Democrats, puts intense pressure on the administration, which has refused to discuss the timing, size or nature of a tax reduction. [New York Times] Fiscal tightening efforts were speeded by the Senate Budget Committee, which approved a $10.6 billion package of proposed legislative savings and new revenues in a what is almost certainly a foredoomed effort to balance the next budget. Aid for the Social Security System was pressed by a House subcommittee, which approved a formula designed to insure that enough money is available to pay old-age benefits through 1981. The Senate Finance Committee has adopted the same formula and final congressional approval seemed certain. Under the formula, some revenues from the trust fund for disability benefits would be placed in the old-age trust fund. [New York Times] Wide hostility to the Cuban refugees who recently arrived in this country has been fueled by fears about the economy, especially rising unemployment, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. The survey also suggested that the economic concerns may heighten racial tension among Americans, with some whites who are worried about their economic position likely to minimize the extent of black unemployment. [New York Times] Federal air regulators were assailed by a panel of independent experts that recommended a sweeping plan for raising the "inadequate level" of technial competence of the Federal Aviation Administration and for upgrading the system of certifying airliners as safe to fly. [New York Times] Major turmoil in the economy of Libya, a major producer of oil, has resulted from the political upheaval there. Widespread nationalization, televised show trials of allegedly corrupt officials, the arrest of more than 2,000 Libyans in the last six months and wide conscription of civil servants into the army have nearly paralyzed the economy, according to several Western business sources. [New York Times] Over 100,000 Cambodians were pushed into Thailand as a result of the recent Vietnamese armed incursion from Cambodia, according to the Thai Foreign Miniiter. He said that the border fighting had taken the lives of 75 invaders, 22 Thai soldiers and many Thai and Cambodian civilians. [New York Times] Angola accused South African forces of aggression, saying that 3,000 troops were occupying several towns after killing more than 300 civilians. South Africa said on June 13 that its troops had entered Angola and had killed more than 200 guerrillas. [New York Times] Portugal-U.S. ties were enhanced in a six-hour visit to Lisbon by President Carter on his way home from a European journey. He expressed admiration for renewed democracy in Portugal and won in return backing for his strong opposition to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. [New York Times] Censure of euthanasia was reaffirmed by the Roman Catholic Church. But it stated that individuals in certain circumstances had the right to renounce extraordinary and burdensome life-support systems available to dying patients in modern hospitals. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 883.45 (-4.09, -0.46%)
S&P Composite: 116.19 (-0.53, -0.45%)
Arms Index: 0.96

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	679	18.96
Declines	821	22.04
Unchanged	390	4.11
Total Volume		45.11

* 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*
June 25, 1980	887.54	116.72	46.50
June 24, 1980	877.30	115.14	37.73
June 23, 1980	873.81	114.51	34.18
June 20, 1980	869.71	114.06	36.52
June 19, 1980	870.90	114.66	38.28
June 18, 1980	881.91	116.26	41.96
June 17, 1980	879.27	116.03	41.99
June 16, 1980	877.73	116.09	36.18
June 13, 1980	876.37	115.81	41.85
June 12, 1980	872.61	115.52	47.30