News stories from Friday April 24, 1981

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

President Reagan lifted the ban on United States grain exports to the Soviet Union that had been in effect for 15 months, while maintaining that his decision did not undercut his determination to halt Soviet acts of aggression "wherever they take place." The President's decision, which was announced to the cabinet in a closed session, also had the effect of lifting President Carter's ban on shipments of phosphate fertilizers to the Soviet Union. [New York Times] The Soviet Union is responsible for most international terrorism, and if the United States ignores the threat of terrorism, "the sand in which we bury our heads will eventually bury our nation," said Senator Jeremiah Denton, endorsing a view held by several witnesses appearing before a Senate subcommittee on security and terrorism in the opening day of its hearing. [New York Times] The Soviet Union was accused of being the greatest source of "international insecurity" by Secretary of State Alexander Haig in his first public speech since taking office. In outlining the philosophy behind the Reagan administration's "new direction" in foreign policy, Mr. Haig said, "Let us be plain about it: Soviet promotion of violence as the instrument of change constitutes the greatest danger to the world." [New York Times] Spiro Agnew admitted to his lawyer in 1973 that he had accepted kickbacks from Maryland contractors, the lawyer has testified. The lawyer, George White, testifying in a civil damage suit to recover for the state $298,110, said that the former Vice President said that he had taken the kickbacks because such bribery had been "going on for 1,000 years." [New York Times] Bowing to criticism that his hearings on an anti-abortion bill were "stacked" in favor of the legislation, Senator John East of North Carolina, a Senate subcommittee chairman who strongly opposes abortion, promised to extend the hearings to hear "all points of view." [New York Times] Senator Harrison Williams maintained under hostile questioning at his Abscam bribery trial that he had neither said nor implied to undercover agents that he would get government contracts for a titanium mine in which he had accepted stock. [New York Times] A gunman threatened a candidate for Governor of New Jersey during a campaign stop at a hospital in East Orange, N.J., but was chased away by a security guard and escaped without firing any shots. The candidate, State Senator James Wallwork, Republican of Short Hills, was not hurt by the gunman, who was disguised in a doctor's surgical garb and mask. [New York Times] The Ku Klux Klan's role in a fight between American shrimp fishermen and Vietnamese refugees who have flocked to the Gulf Coast to make their living as shrimpers has resulted in a federal court case in which the white fishermen have been accused of conspiring with the Klan to intimidate the Vietnamese into leaving. A hearing is expected as early as next week. [New York Times] Measles may be eliminated in the United States by the end of 1982, except for imported cases, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. The prediction was based on a dramatic decline in the number of cases reported in the first 14 weeks of this year as against the comparable period in 1980. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1020.35 (+10.08, +1.00%)
S&P Composite: 135.14 (+1.20, +0.90%)
Arms Index: 0.58

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	953	40.52
Declines	583	14.37
Unchanged	374	5.11
Total Volume		60.00

* 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*
April 23, 1981	1010.27	133.94	64.20
April 22, 1981	1007.02	134.14	60.65
April 21, 1981	1005.94	134.23	60.29
April 20, 1981	1015.94	135.45	51.01
April 16, 1981	1005.58	134.70	52.95
April 15, 1981	1001.71	134.17	56.03
April 14, 1981	989.10	132.68	48.39
April 13, 1981	993.16	133.15	49.85
April 10, 1981	1000.27	134.51	58.12
April 9, 1981	998.83	133.92	59.54