News stories from Wednesday December 10, 1980

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

The accused murderer of John Lennon was taken to the prison ward of Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric observation after his arraignment in the slaying of the Beatles star. The cell of the accused man will be checked every 15 minutes to prevent him from taking his life. [New York Times] The new Secretary of the Treasury expected to be designated tomorrow by President-elect Ronald Reagan is a major figure in the financial community. Senior transition officials said that he Is Donald Regan, chairman of Merrill Lynch & Company, the investment concern. Among the other selections expected to be announced are William Casey, former chairman of the S.E.C., as Director of Central Intelligence and Caspar Weinberger as Secretary of Defense. [New York Times] A convicted Congressman resigned from the House. Representative John Jenrette, Democrat of South Carolina, announced he was stepping down at once to halt House proceedings arising from his conviction of bribery and conspiracy in the Abscam investigation. A House ethics panel was considering recommending his expulsion from Congress. [New York Times] The Senate bowed to a veto threat by President Carter and deleted from a stopgap financing bill a prohibition on Justice Department intervention in lawsuits involving busing to achieve school desegregation. But the action was viewed as only a temporary truce as the anti-busing forces vowed to revive the issue in January when Congress would be more conservative and they would deal with a President who opposes busing. [New York Times] A television programming coup has been achieved by a new cable network that is to begin operations in January 1982. The British Broadcasting Corporation has agreed to make available to the network, which is a new division of Rockefeller Center Inc., the BBC's several thousand hours of programming a year on an exclusive basis in this country for 10 years. The loss of BBC programming could be a major blow for the financially troubled Public Broadcasting Service. [New York Times] A government guide on automobiles, rating them in such areas as safety, fuel efficiency and maintenance and insurance costs, has been published for the first time. The 68-page "Car Book," which officials said would be free, provides comparisons between nearly all new American cars and the most popular imported models. [New York Times] Jean Harris reacted angrily after a police detective testified in Westchester County Court that she appeared to be acting when he questioned her on the night she is accused of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower. She was also angered by a ruling that prohibited her lawyer from reading transcripts to point out alleged discrepancies in the detective's testimony. [New York Times] Broader civil liberties in Poland were again sought by the independent union movement. It denounced "continuing acts of repression" and took up the cause of four men jailed on charges of slandering the state. But the union issued no ultimatum and announced the formation of a panel to seek the release of the prisoners. [New York Times] Israel accused the United Nations of permitting "anti-Semitic invective" that no "decent society" would tolerate. Israel's delegate spoke out after six days of speeches in the General Assembly that were nearly unanimously critical of Israel's policy in the occupied Arab territories. [New York Times] The East German border was reopened by Soviet troops, who had barred Westerners from the entire frontier near Poland for 10 days. Allied officials said there was no sign of Soviet or East German troops having been amassed, but Western diplomats noted that large areas of the frontier are permanently sealed. [New York Times] A pact to forswear armed intervention in the Persian Gulf was proposed to the United States and other world powers by Leonid Brezhnev in a speech before India's Parliament. The Soviet leader asserted that Moscow's intervention in Afghanistan had limited aims and posed no threat to Iran or Pakistan. [New York Times] Syrian-Jordanian tension eased as both Damascus and Amman announced that Syria had begun withdrawing its troops from their frontier. A Jordanian pullback is to start Thursday. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 916.21 (-17.83, -1.91%)
S&P Composite: 128.26 (-2.22, -1.70%)
Arms Index: 1.71

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	401	7.16
Declines	1,211	37.07
Unchanged	371	5.63
Total Volume		49.86

* 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*
December 9, 1980	934.04	130.48	53.22
December 8, 1980	933.70	130.61	53.60
December 5, 1980	956.23	134.03	51.99
December 4, 1980	970.48	136.48	51.17
December 3, 1980	972.27	136.71	43.44
December 2, 1980	974.40	136.97	52.35
December 1, 1980	969.45	137.21	48.17
November 28, 1980	993.34	140.52	34.27
November 26, 1980	989.68	140.17	55.34
November 25, 1980	982.68	139.33	55.83