News stories from Tuesday November 25, 1980

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

A new strategic arms control formula is being considered by President-elect Ronald Reagan's advisers, according to Republican officials. They said that, under the plan, amendments proposed by the incoming Senate to the arms treaty already negotiated with Moscow would form the basis of Washington's position in new talks. [New York Times] Continued high inflation was signaled as the government reported that a new surge in mortgage rates helped push the Consumer Price Index up by 1 percent for the second successive month. Prices have risen at a 12.2 percent rate so far in 1980. The government also reported that the purchasing power of Americans has dropped sharply, by 6 percent, in the last year. [New York Times] Future government policy on the arts is being debated by President-elect Reagan's advisers. They are said to believe that the activities of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities have been profoundly compromised by politicization and an accompanying lowering of standards under the Carter administration. [New York Times] A reshaping of Democratic policies on social programs that the voters appeared to reject on Election Day is needed, according to the consensus of a group of 22 prominent party members. The conferees, who represent different ideological groups of Democrats, agreed that the problems went beyond President Carter to programs that the voters had found to be wasteful, inefficient and ineffective. [New York Times] Several thousand Cuban refugees have been left to fend for themselves by the American "sponsors" who promised to help them find food, shelter and jobs, acording to federal officials. They said that about 4 percent of the 125,000 refugees who have come to the United States since last April had "phantom" sponsors who did not exist or who disappeared soon after the refugees left resettlement camps. [New York Times] Fires devastated southern California, scorching more than 45,000 acres in five counties, destroying or seriously damaging more than 300 homes and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. In one major brush blaze, a firestorm whipped by 90-mile-an-hour winds virtually destroyed entire communities perched on the foothills outside Los Angeles. [New York Times] A key discrimination case was settled by the Ford Motor Company and the government. The company agreed to pay $23 million to employees and to provide other benefits for women and minorities. The complaints against Ford focused mainly on a lack of opportunity for women in the hourly paid categories of jobs and in the crafts for minorities and had been in dispute for more than seven years. [New York Times] Sugar Ray Leonard regained his title as the World Boxing Council welterweight champion. Five months after he lost a close decision to Roberto Duran, the 24-year-old Leonard mesmerized his Panamanian rival and scored a technical knockout over him in the eighth round of their bout in New Orleans. [New York Times] Gov. Ella Grasso's cancer has spread to her liver, a spokesman announced. Cancer specialists not connected with the treatment of the Connecticut Governor said that cancer of the liver is usually incurable. Mrs. Grasso is to begin undergoing chemotherapy treatment soon. [New York Times] Iraq said it was holding key positions in Iran. The Baghdad government said that its forces had repulsed new Iranian attempts to break the siege of the oil refinery city of Abadan and to counterattack along other parts of the 300-mile battlefront. [New York Times] King Hussein appealed for Arab unity and renewed a pledge to recover territory for the Palestinians. The Jordanian monarch opened the 11th summit conference of the 21-member Arab League in Amman and made several allusions to the five Arab countries boycotting the meeting. [New York Times] More than 3,900 fatalities are expected to result from Sunday's earthquakes in southern Italy, making it the worst earthquake disaster in Europe in 65 years. Officials confirmed at least 2,400 deaths and said that at least a thousand people were still unaccounted for. Hundreds of thousands made homeless had no shelter, and nighttime temperatures were below freezing. Survivors searching for relatives demanded a speedup in the rescue efforts. [New York Times] A new labor crisis loomed in Poland as the leaders of the independent union in Warsaw announced plans for a general strike in factories throughout the capital Thursday afternoon if the government failed to agree to demands involving law enforcement. At least four factories are already struck. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 982.68 (+3.93, +0.40%)
S&P Composite: 139.33 (+1.02, +0.74%)
Arms Index: 0.66

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	941	34.40
Declines	655	15.77
Unchanged	365	5.67
Total Volume		55.84

* 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 24, 1980	978.75	138.31	51.13
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