News stories from Tuesday May 18, 1982

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

The $40 billion cut in Social Security was withdrawn by Senate Republicans who had proposed it to help reduce the 1983 federal budget. They committed themselves to taking steps to assure the solvency of the Social Security system by end of 1982, but after the fall elections. [New York Times] $5 billion in mortgage rate subsidies for the depressed housing industry was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committeee over White House objections. But the panel voted to appropriate only $1 billion of the total in the current fiscal year to ward off a threatened veto. [New York Times] Vice President Bush intervened with the Treasury Department in March in connection with proposed rules that would have forced pharmaceutical companies to pay significantly more taxes. Later he withdrew from involvement in the tax issue because, he said, he felt "uncomfortable" about the "appearance" of a conflict of interest. He took office owning more than $145,000 worth of drug company stocks, and he had been a director of Eli Lilly & Company. [New York Times] A used car regulation was vetoed by the Senate. It voted 69 to 27 nullify a Federal Trade Commission rule requiring used car dealers to warn customers about known defects in the vehicles they sell. If, as expected, the House votes similarly, it would be the first congressional veto of an F.T.C. rule. [New York Times] John W. Hinckley's "inner rage" might have been worsened by the psychiatric treatments he received in the months before he shot President Reagan, a psychiatrist testified. Dr. David Bear, the second psychiatrist who has testified on behalf of the defense, said that the treatments were "an absolute calamity" that worsened the defendant's already "bizarre state of mind." [New York Times] The Rev. Sun Myung Moon was convicted of federal charges of conspiracy and filing false income tax returns. The founder and leader of the Unification Church had been on trial for more than eight weeks in federal district court in Manhattan. One of Mr. Moon's top aides, Takeru Kamiyama, was convicted of conspiracy, perjury and obstructing the investigation that led to the trial. Both defendants were scheduled to be sentenced July 14. [New York Times] Leonid Brezhnev welcomed President Reagan's readiness to resume talks on strategic nuclear arms, but said the American arms proposals were one-sided and prejudicial to Soviet security. The Soviet leader countered with the suggestion that the two sides freeze the deployment of their nuclear arsenals as soon as the negotiations begin. He said a freeze now would prevent either side from taking steps that "would upset the strategic situation." [New York Times] President Reagan rejected Mr. Brezhnev's proposal for an American-Soviet freeze on strategic weapons, but expressed optimism that the Soviet leader had opened the way for arms control talks. "I think we'll be meeting," he said. [New York Times] A possible halt in the Falkland talks at the United Nations was feared, diplomats there believed, as Argentine and British envoys met separately with Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar. [New York Times] Attack positions were being taken by the British fleet in the South Altantic, according to military sources in London. When the maneuver is completed, the ships will be prepared to start an invasion if the word is given by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mrs. Thatcher told questioners in the House of Commons that she expected a reply from Argentina "within a day or so" to what was described in official circles in London as a "take-it-or-leave-it" formulation of the British position. [New York Times] Menachem Begin's shaky coalition in Israel's Parliament was weakened by the defection of two M. P.'s from the Prime Minister's Likud bloc to the Labor alignment headed by Shimon Peres. The government's ability to muster a majority for a vote tomorrow on a motion of no-confidence was doubted. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 840.85 (-4.47, -0.53%)
S&P Composite: 115.84 (-0.87, -0.75%)
Arms Index: 1.51

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	433	9.20
Declines	1,025	32.85
Unchanged	442	6.92
Total Volume		48.97

* 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*
May 17, 1982	845.32	116.71	45.57
May 14, 1982	857.78	118.01	49.90
May 13, 1982	859.11	118.22	58.22
May 12, 1982	865.77	119.17	59.21
May 11, 1982	865.87	119.42	54.67
May 10, 1982	860.92	118.38	46.30
May 7, 1982	869.20	119.47	67.18
May 6, 1982	863.20	118.68	67.54
May 5, 1982	854.45	117.67	58.86
May 4, 1982	854.45	117.46	58.72