News stories from Tuesday December 21, 1982
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The economy continues to decline in the current quarter, at a 2.2 percent annual rate, government officials estimated, indicating that an economic recovery will not occur until spring. At the same time, the government said that consumer prices, depressed by the long downturn, rose only one-tenth of 1 percent in November, meaning that the inflation rate for the year, a bit under 4.8 percent, will be the lowest in a decade. [New York Times]
- A highway repair bill was approved by the House after a House-Senate conference reached agreement on a compromise measure that provides for a five-cent-a-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax. But a new filibuster threatened a Senate vote as weary legislators prepared to go home for the holidays. [New York Times]
- President Reagan signed a $379 billion emergency spending bill despite what he called "serious reservations" about some provisions. His signature provided funds for a major part of the government that technically ran out of funds Friday. [New York Times]
- New divisive political techniques will polarize American voters and make it increasingly difficult to form a consensus in government, according to campaign consultants from both major parties. They cited the rising use of small-audience cable television channels and increasing direct mail appeals to ethnic and issue-based interest groups. [New York Times]
- Nancy Reagan's doctors said that a small growth that was removed from above her upper lip Monday was diagnosed as skin cancer, but added that it was "adequately excised and no further treatment is required." Experts called the cancer one of the most common and most curable. [New York Times]
- Frank Rizzo is shaping a campaign for Mayor of Philadelphia that will seek to appeal to both blacks and whites and to project himself as a "stoned-out liberal on human rights" while still "hard-nosed on violent crime." Mr. Rizzo spoke in an interview about the drive he plans to launch to regain the office he held for eight tumultuous years amid rising opposition by blacks. [New York Times]
- The inquiry on John DeLorean focused for a while on his reported assertion that the Irish Republican Army was his partner in a cocaine conspiracy. Federal law enforcement officials said the investigation had failed to corrobate the asserted link or to rule it out. [New York Times]
- A jobless Good Samaritan was rewarded a day after he snatched a blind man from the wheels of a subway train in Greenwich Village while returning home from a job interview. The hero, Reginald Andrews, who has eight children, won the job, a telephone call from President Reagan and celebrity status in his upper Manhattan neighborhood. [New York Times]
- A Soviet arms reduction proposal was made public by Yuri Andropov, the Soviet leader. Under the plan, Moscow would reduce its medium-range missiles in Europe from more than 600 to about 162, the number of missiles now maintained by Britain and France, if the NATO allies abandon plans to deploy 572 new medium-range missiles in Europe late next year. [New York Times]
- Washington rejected the proposal on medium-range missiles in Europe made public by Moscow on the ground that it would leave the Soviet arsenal superior to NATO'S arsenal. [New York Times]
- France and Britain quickly spurned the Soviet proposal to reduce Moscow's medium-range missiles in Europe to the level of those controlled by Paris and London. The governments said they believed the plan was designed to institutionalize what some see as an East-West arms imbalance that favors Moscow. [New York Times]
- An American appeal to Jordan to enter the Israeli-Egyptian negotiations on Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories was renewed by President Reagan in talks with King Hussein. But the Jordanian leader reportedly replied that present conditions were not right for him to make such a move. [New York Times]
- Guatemalan leaders have succeeded in bringing an uneasy peace to much of the countryside, where reports of battles with guerrillas and massacres by government troops were commonplace a few months ago. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1030.26 (+25.75, +2.56%)
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* |
| December 20, 1982 | 1004.51 | 136.26 | 62.20 |
| December 17, 1982 | 1011.50 | 137.49 | 76.01 |
| December 16, 1982 | 990.25 | 135.30 | 73.69 |
| December 15, 1982 | 992.64 | 135.24 | 81.05 |
| December 14, 1982 | 1009.38 | 137.39 | 98.38 |
| December 13, 1982 | 1024.28 | 139.95 | 63.13 |
| December 10, 1982 | 1018.76 | 139.57 | 86.43 |
| December 9, 1982 | 1027.96 | 140.00 | 90.31 |
| December 8, 1982 | 1047.09 | 141.81 | 97.43 |
| December 7, 1982 | 1056.94 | 142.72 | 111.62 |