News stories from Monday November 24, 1980

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

Iran's official reply to U.S. proposals for freeing the hostages is to be taken to Washington tomorrow by an Algerian delegation, the State Department said. The Algerians spent more than a week in Teheran discussing the United States' response to Iran's conditions for releasing the 52 Americans. [New York Times] A search for fire victims continued at the MGM Grand hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nev. Fire crews pumped six feet of water from the basement and workers sawed open elevators that plummeted from higher floors during last Friday's blaze, but officials said they doubted that the death toll would rise beyond 84 in one of the worst hotel fires in the nation's history. [New York Times] Legal aid for the poor is under attack by conservatives, who are organizing to press President-elect Reagan to drop the federally financed program or impose severe curbs on it. The $300-million-a-year program, which provides aid for the indigent in non-criminal cases, was established in 1965 as part of President Johnson's drive against poverty. Mr. Reagan has long criticized the program. [New York Times] The importance of arms talks was underlined by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt to Parliament, and he said that President-elect Ronald Reagan shared his views, The West German leader spoke warmly of his recent meeting with Mr. Reagan. [New York Times] A former cultist pleaded not guilty in San Francisco to federal charges that he had plotted to murder Representative Leo Ryan and a United States diplomat after they inspected the retreat of the People's Temple at Jonestown, Guyana. The plea was entered by Larry Layton, one of the few survivors of the cult that broke up with the deaths two years ago of more than 900 of its members. [New York Times] A top arms project is in deep trouble, according to Pentagon officials. The Trident missile submarine program, the Navy's biggest strategic weapons project, is plagued by major technical and managerial problems, they said. A spokesman for the manufacuturer called the mistakes "very minor" and said that the first vessel would be delivered on schedule. [New York Times] A major waste cleanup bill gained in Congress. The Senate, voting 78 to 9, approved legislation to establish a $1.6 billion fund to enable the government to move speedily to clean up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps such as the one in the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, N.Y. The measure now goes back to the House, which has passed a somewhat different bill. [New York Times] George Raft died of leukemia at the age of 85. The long-time movie actor often played a cool, dapper, smooth-talking hoodlum in characterizations he said he patterned after top gangsters he had known. [New York Times] A peace mission ended inconclusively as an emissary of Secretary General Kurt Waldheim of the United Nations ended talks with Iranian and Iraqi leaders and flew to Geneva on his way back to New York. Iran's Prime Minister has termed the effort "a waste of time." Both Iran and Iraq reported continued heavy fighting. [New York Times] More than 1,000 people were killed and several thousand were injured in the earthquakes Sunday in southern Italy, officials announced. Rescue operations were slowed by shattered roads and bridges, severed telephone lines and heavy fog. The government said that 97 municipalities suffered serious damage and that the worst hit provinces were Naples, Salerno, Potenza and Avellino.The striken people of the Apennines dug through the rubble in a search for the missing after the devastating wave of temblors. All across the mountains, men built makeshift tents for the homeless with blankets and tablecloths, women in black comforted one another and priests led congregations in special prayers for the dead. [New York Times] Polish rail workers struck for two hours in Warsaw and Gdansk, halting commuter lines. The workers, who are pressing wage demands, threatened to walk out for four hours tomorrow unless an official met with them. Moscow cautioned that a general rail strike coild affect Poland's national defense and disrupt transit links between the Soviet Union and East Germany. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 978.75 (-11.18, -1.13%)
S&P Composite: 138.31 (-4.80, -3.35%)
Arms Index: 0.98

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	484	14.31
Declines	1,108	32.09
Unchanged	368	4.72
Total Volume		51.12

* 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*
November 21, 1980	989.93	139.11	55.93
November 20, 1980	1000.17	140.40	60.17
November 19, 1980	991.04	139.06	69.24
November 18, 1980	997.95	139.70	70.38
November 17, 1980	986.26	137.75	50.30
November 14, 1980	986.35	137.15	71.63
November 13, 1980	982.42	136.49	69.33
November 12, 1980	964.93	134.59	58.51
November 11, 1980	944.03	131.26	41.52
November 10, 1980	933.79	129.48	35.72