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Friday December 5, 1980
. . . where the 1970s live forever!

News stories from Friday December 5, 1980


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

  • A recession next year seemed more likely as the nation's largest banks raised their prime lending rates to 19 percent from 18½ percent in response to the Federal Reserve's stringent monetary policy. This was the highest level for the prime rate since April, when it was 20 percent. [New York Times]
  • The jobless rate declined slightly in November by one-tenth of a percentage point to 7.5 percent of the total workforce. The modest decline was broadly based, however. The best improvement was in the automobile industry where the 19.9 percent rate last month was half the peak reached last May. [New York Times]
  • Labor merged 25 years ago today as the craft unions and the industrial unions formed the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Leaders of the federation cite its record as a vigorous voice for American workers, but it has not been able to achieve a number of its original goals. Problems include a diminished membership and the loss of two major unions. [New York Times]
  • The Stouffer Inn fire in Westchester County Thursday was not caused by computer equipment used by the Arrow Electronics Corporation, which was holding a meeting at the hotel's conference center when the fire began, the District Attorney said. But he did not know whether the prescence of the equipment had contributed to the intensity of the blaze that killed 26 persons, including Arrow officials. District Attorney Carl Vergari said he had no evidence so far of any building code violations at the hotel. [New York Times]
  • Compromises on two civil rights bilis were vainly sought by congressional and White House negotiators. One measure would strengthen federal efforts to end housing discrimination and another would bar Justice Department intervention in suits about busing schoolchildren for desegregation. "It's very tough," Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti said when one negotiating session was over. Senator Orrin Hatch has submitted 300 amendments to the bills and said he would continue to filibuster. [New York Times]
  • Postage stamps carrying advertising have been proposed by Representative Barry Goldwater, Jr. to help turn the deficit-ridden United States Postal Service into a profitable enterprise. The Republican from California has in-roduced a bill in Congress, the Free Enterprise Postage Stamp Act, proposing to sell advertising space on stamps at a rate of 20 cents each. [New York Times]
  • Boston's transit system began to close down in compliance with a court order because of a deadlock in legislative efforts to provide money for the financially troubled system. [New York Times]
  • Jean Harris apparently admitted to a detecitve shooting Dr. Herman Tarnower last March at his home in Purchase, N.Y. The first indication of an admission heard by the jury was given in testimony by Detective Arthur Siciliano of the Harrison police, who said that Mrs. Harris, who has denied intentionally shooting Dr. Tarnower, made the statement to him when he arrived at the physician's home. [New York Times]
  • The death rate is rising sharply among American adolescents and young adults, while improved health care has steadily reduced mortality among all other Americans. A report by the Surgeon General of the United States attributed the rising death rate in the 15-to-24-year-old group to alcohol and drug abuse and mental problems, but the chief cause of death was car accidents. Except for this, the report was optimistic about health trends in the nation. [New York Times]
  • Further aid to El Salvador was cut oft by President Carter pending clarification of the role of Salvadoran security forces in the murders of three American nuns and an American lay missionary, whose bodies were found Thursday. El Salvador's junta of military officers and civilians said the killings were committed by "right-wing terrorists," but Roman Catholic Church sources who have been closely observing the country's violent political upheaval said there was indirect evidence that security forces were responsible for the murders. [New York Times]
  • A surprise meeting on Poland was held by the Warsaw Pact nations. Soviet leaders and their Eastern European allies expressed confidence that Poland would overcome its crisis and that its workers would "assure the country's development along the socialist path." The statement, released through the official Soviet press agency Tass, followed a secret emergency meeting in Moscow. The circumstances of the meeting seemed ominous to Western analysts, who were divided over the likelihood of intervention in Poland.

    A Soviet-led military intervention in Poland was still possible, American officials said privately, if Poland wavers in what the statement that followed the Moscow meeting of the Warsaw Pact nations called its "firm link" to the Soviet bloc. [New York Times]

  • Senator Charles Percy told Soviet leaders during his visit to Moscow two weeks ago that he favored a Palestinian state with Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, elected as its leader, according to cablegrams sent to the State Department from Moscow by Ambassador Thomas Watson "This would permit Arafat to realize his wish to be chief of state before he dies," Senator Percy is quoted as saying to Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. The Senator's views have upset members of the Reagan transition team. [New York Times]
  • Two Arab mayors In the West Bank were deported by an Israeli security committee headed by Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The panel rejected a suggestion by Israel's Supreme Court that the mayors be allowed to remain for a trial period. The mayors were expelled in May after Palestinian terrorists killed 6 Jewish worshipers and wounded 16 others in Hebron. They were permitted to return to the West Bank pending an appeal during which they were imprisoned. [New York Times]


Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 956.23 (-14.25, -1.47%)
S&P Composite: 134.03 (-2.45, -1.80%)
Arms Index: 1.91

IssuesVolume*
Advances3876.84
Declines1,23941.79
Unchanged3443.36
Total Volume51.99
* 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
DateDJIAS&PVolume*
December 4, 1980970.48136.4851.17
December 3, 1980972.27136.7143.44
December 2, 1980974.40136.9752.35
December 1, 1980969.45137.2148.17
November 28, 1980993.34140.5234.27
November 26, 1980989.68140.1755.34
November 25, 1980982.68139.3355.83
November 24, 1980978.75138.3151.13
November 21, 1980989.93139.1155.93
November 20, 19801000.17140.4060.17


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