News stories from Tuesday June 16, 1981

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

President Reagan pressed budget cuts of his choosing and accused congressional Democrats of "unconscionable" efforts to sabotage his proposed reductions in spending. At a news conference, Mr. Reagan threatened to fight for an alternative bill to achieve the $35 billion reduction authorized by Congress last month. [New York Times] Democrats in Congress are angry over President Reagan's effort to press the legislators to adopt his economic program with no changes and no delay. Representative Richard Bolling, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, accused Mr. Reagan of trying to use the budget process to impose a "totalitarian" rule. [New York Times] Treatment for victims of Agent Orange by the Veterans Administration was approved by Congress for the first time. Voting 98 to 0, the Senate authorized medical care for veterans harmed by exposure to the herbicide, which was widely used in the Vietnam War to defoliate crops and jungles. [New York Times] Drug use and a fatal Navy crash were linked by Representative Joseph Addabbo. He said that autopsies indicated that most of the 14 sailors and marines who were killed last month when a jet crashed on the deck of the carrier Nimitz had traces of illicit drugs in their systems. An aide said the tests suggested marijuana use, but that stronger drugs might also have been involved. Representative Addabbo did not assert that drug abuse had caused the crash. The Navy termed his information "inaccurate." [New York Times] A contract proposal to air controllers has been made by the Federal Aviation Administration. The 15,000-member union of air traffic regulators has threatened a strike starting Monday that could severely curtail the nation's air transportation. [New York Times] The Chicago Cubs were sold by William Wrigley for $20.5 million to the Tribune Company, parent of The Chicago Tribune and The Daily News in New York. The Cubs have been one of major league baseball's least successful franchises in recent years. [New York Times] The impact of pressure groups on ads was suggested by the new chairman of Procter & Gamble, television's largest advertiser. He acknowledged that the company was refusing to sponsor shows that are "broadly held" to contain excessive sex, violence and profanity. [New York Times] The ouster of Iran's President appeared more likely as Parliament voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Abolhassan Bani-Sadr. Eight of the President's staff members were arrested and several others were expelled from his offices. There was no word on the whereabouts of Mr. Bani-Sadr, who has not been seen in public for a week. [New York Times] Israel apparently violated its accord with the United States on the use of American-made weapons when it bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor on June 6, President Reagan said. But he also told a news conference that Israel "might have sincerely believed" that the action was defensive. [New York Times] Israel would be sternly rebuked and punished with an arms embargo for its raid on the Iraqi reactor, under a United Nations resolution drafted by third world countries spurred by Iraq. In private, Western diplomats warned that unless the draft was drastically modified, it would face vetoes in the Security Council by the United States, Britain and France. [New York Times] The issue of nuclear arms development in Iraq has concerned members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A Senator and congressional aides said that Israeli diplomats had failed to present convincing evidence to support Israel's assertion that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons in the reactor that Israeli jets destroyed. [New York Times] The sale of American weapons to China has been approved in principle, Secretary of State Alexander Haig announced at the end of a three-day visit to Peking. He told reporters that his talks with Chinese leaders had been "unusually significant and successful" and seemed to foreshadow "a major expansion of Sino-American friendship and cooperation." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1003.33 (-8.66, -0.86%)
S&P Composite: 132.15 (-1.46, -1.09%)
Arms Index: 1.54

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	583	14.01
Declines	1,022	37.83
Unchanged	347	5.94
Total Volume		57.78

* 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 15, 1981	1011.99	133.61	63.34
June 12, 1981	1006.28	133.49	60.79
June 11, 1981	1007.42	133.75	59.53
June 10, 1981	993.88	132.32	53.20
June 9, 1981	994.44	131.97	44.61
June 8, 1981	995.64	132.24	41.57
June 5, 1981	993.79	132.22	47.18
June 4, 1981	986.74	130.96	48.94
June 3, 1981	989.71	130.71	54.70
June 2, 1981	987.48	130.62	53.93