News stories from Wednesday February 10, 1982

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

A continued tight money policy was announced by Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. In testifying before Congress, Mr. Volcker asserted that adherence to the restrictive policy was needed to fight inflation but would still allow a recovery from the recession. He urged spending cuts and tax increases to reduce federal budget deficits. [New York Times] The President opposes any spending by the federal government to prime the economy and combat the recession. In his first economic report to Congress, Mr. Reagan argued that the recession must be borne for long-term benefits. He said he was trying to break from past practice and create a strong, non-inflationary economy "in which the private sector is the key engine to growth, employment and rising living standards." [New York Times] A withdrawal of the budget proposed by President Reagan was urged by Robert Byrd, the Senate minority leader. The Democrat from West Virginia said he was making the appeal amid rising "cries of shock" over the budget proposals by both Democrats and Republicans. [New York Times] Reaganomics was denounced by John Anderson, the independent 1980 presidential candidate. In a speech at Columbia University, the former Republican Representative from Illinois assailed the Reagan administration's massive military spending and the high unemployment rate. [New York Times] Shirley Chisholm is leaving Congress this year after serving as a Democratic Representative from Brooklyn since 1968. Mrs. Chisholm, a liberal activist and the first black woman to win a seat in Congress, said in an interview: "We have an administration that is not responsive to our constituency" and "many of us can't be effective at this time." [New York Times] James Watt said he would go to jail if necessary to prevent the surrender of documents sought by Congress. The Interior Secretary said it was very likely he would be held in contempt in his effort to defend executive privilege. The documents deal with administration discussions of Canadian energy policy. [New York Times] Further delays at Three Mile island were announced by the president of the nuclear plant's operating company. He said that extensive corrosion requiring costly repairs would postpone a restarting of the undamaged reactor at the Middletown, Pa., facility by six to 12 months. [New York Times] A defendant in a federal drug case asserted that government agents had sought to turn him into an informer against Representative Frederick Richmond of Brooklyn. The defendant, an unemployed electrical technician, said that the agents had told him "there's nothing you can't do" if he agreed to cooperate and threatened his life when he refused. [New York Times] A truce in El Salvador is sought in a resolution introduced in Congress by four Democrats. They called on the Reagan administration to seek an internationally supervised cease-fire and talks leading to a political resolution of the civil war. [New York Times] A Salvadoran murder inquiry advanced. The military authorities surrendered six National Guardsmen to a civilian court investigating the deaths of four American Roman Catholic missionaries 14 months ago. Under Salvadoran law, the judge has 72 hours to weigh the evidence and decide whether to charge the soldiers formally, hold them for further investigation or release them. [New York Times] The importance of Western unity in the face of the crackdown in Poland was stressed by Secretary of State Alexander Haig. Speaking at a news conference in Madrid, Mr. Haig said that Washington should not bring additional pressure on its West European allies to slow or halt their plan to build the natural gas pipeline from the Soviet Union. [New York Times] A new West European-Soviet accord was announced by a group of French banks. They said they had agreed to lend the Soviet Union an additional $140 million to help finance purchases of French-made equipment for a planned 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline from Siberia to Western Europe. As a result, the Soviet Union will not have to use its own scarce foreign currency. [New York Times] A quick end of the East-West meeting on European cooperation and security appeared in prospect. Western and neutral foreign ministers at the 35-nation conference in Madrid were increasingly angered by continuing parliamentary maneuvers by Poland that prevented some delegates from delivering speeches assailing the military crackdown in Poland. [New York Times] A revolt against the Syrian regime of President Hafez al-Assad is underway in the central city of Hama, but about 8,000 soldiers have the city of 200,000 under siege, according to Western diplomatic sources. Damascus appeared calm. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 836.66 (+6.09, +0.73%)
S&P Composite: 114.66 (+0.98, +0.86%)
Arms Index: 0.78

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	911	28.19
Declines	524	12.59
Unchanged	441	5.84
Total Volume		46.62

* 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*
February 9, 1982	830.57	113.68	54.42
February 8, 1982	833.43	114.63	48.50
February 5, 1982	851.03	117.26	53.34
February 4, 1982	847.03	116.42	53.30
February 3, 1982	845.03	116.48	49.56
February 2, 1982	852.55	118.01	45.01
February 1, 1982	851.69	117.78	47.73
January 29, 1982	871.10	120.40	73.40
January 28, 1982	864.25	118.92	66.68
January 27, 1982	842.66	115.74	50.05