News stories from Friday February 20, 1981

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

OPEC ministers met in Geneva, reportedly to discuss cutting their oil production to keep prices up despite increasing supplies. Following the secret meeting, Saudi Arabia reportedly indicated its intention to cut its current daily production by 2 million barrels a day, to about 8.3 million. Other OPEC nations were said to have been willing to cut daily production by a total of 500,000 barrels. [New York Times] Democrats expressed qualified praise for President Reagan's economic program. Democrats in Congress said they would propose major revisions in the President's tax cut plan, and lesser changes in his proposal for $41.4 billion in budget cuts. They said his proposed three-year 10 percent annual tax cut was inflationary and inequitable, and said the budget cuts were tilted toward the rich at the expense of the poor. Nevertheless, they praised Mr. Reagan's "initiative." [New York Times] The space shuttle Columbia was tested on its launching pad at Canaveral, Fla., a demonstration that was crucial to its manned takeoff in April. The firing of the spacecraft's engines in unison for a planned 20 seconds was judged a reassuring success. When the test was over, 1,000 employees at the Kennedy Space Center went on strike following a breakdown of contract negotiations over a cost-of-living issue. [New York Times] Another child was reported missing in Atlanta. His case and the death of a 10-year-old boy whose body was found last June were added to the investigations of a growing number of slain and missing black children in the Atlanta area. The police were searching for 13-year-old Curtis Walker, who was last seen at a shopping center. [New York Times] Federal water relief for New Jersey was sought by Governor Byrne, who asked President Reagan to declare an emergency in 372 communities under water-use restrictions and to provide between $116.3 million and $123.3 million for major long-term relief projects and other programs that would be undertaken to end the water shortage in North Jersey. [New York Times] A Pentagon report on El Salvador said that its army is so poorly prepared to fight the Marxist guerrillas that it has "no hope" of defeating them. A State Department memorandum on a briefing for embassies of allied countries, quoted Secretary of State Alexander Haig as saying that the United States "will not remain passive" to what he described as a "systematic, well-financed, sophisticated effort to impose a Communist regime in Central America." He also said that Cuba was the main source of the alleged military intervention in El Salvador.El Salvador wants economic aid more than military support, President Jose Napoleon Duarte said in an interview. President Duarte, who heads a civilian-military junta, said the economic crisis caused by guerrilla attacks against the government was a greater threat to his country than the guerrillas. [New York Times] Mexico stressed its ties with Cuba in an apparent rebuff to the Reagan administration following a visit by an American delegation carrying "proof" of Havana's support for the Salvadoran guerrillas. After the completion of a sugar agreement with Cuba, President Jose Lopez Portillo said that Cuba was the Latin American country "most dear to Mexico." [New York Times] Israel and the United States disagreed over whether Saudi Arabia should be provided with additional American military equipment for the F-15 fighter jets it has purchased. This was announced by Secretary of State Haig following a meeting with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel. [New York Times] Export aid to Chile was restored by the Reagan administration in a goodwill gesture. It revoked a prohibition that was imposed by the Carter administration on United States government financing of American exports to Chile in retaliation for the denial of an extradition request for three Chilean military intelligence officers. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 936.09 (+2.73, +0.29%)
S&P Composite: 126.58 (-0.03, -0.02%)
Arms Index: 1.01

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	639	15.43
Declines	835	20.41
Unchanged	423	6.06
Total Volume		41.90

* 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*
February 19, 1981	933.36	126.61	41.64
February 18, 1981	947.10	128.48	40.42
February 17, 1981	939.68	127.81	37.94
February 13, 1981	931.57	126.98	33.36
February 12, 1981	936.60	127.48	34.71
February 11, 1981	942.49	128.24	37.79
February 10, 1981	948.63	129.24	40.81
February 9, 1981	947.18	129.27	38.32
February 6, 1981	952.30	130.60	45.82
February 5, 1981	946.76	129.63	45.31