News stories from Thursday December 18, 1980

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

Iran's new terms for the release of the 52 American hostages were believed to have been delivered to the Algerian intermediaries. The Prime Minister said that the terms, which were kept a secret, would be conveyed to Washington "in the near future." [New York Times] A sharp increase in military financing is sought by the Reagan transition team at the Pentagon. It hopes to gain the new administration's approval to ask Congress for $10 to $20 billion in supplementary appropriations in 1981. Republican aides said the proposal would include money to develop an advanced B-1 bomber and a mobile version of the Minuteman intercontinental missile system. [New York Times] Concern over the MX missile system, which is scheduled to be built in Utah and Nevada, accelerated as the Air Force officially released its draft environmental impact analysis. Governor Scott Matheson of Utah and many other officials and citizens are strongly critical of the massive project on such grounds as feasibility, morality and impact on the residents and environment of the two states. [New York Times] The first serious transition friction has apparently developed between the Carter administration and Reagan transition officials, according to Republican sources. They said that the President's budget director, citing the pressure of budget preparation deadlines, had rejected a request by his Republican successor for immediate access to budget analysts and for a look at the next budget being drafted. [New York Times] A Senator will not be prosecuted after a long inquiry by the Justice Department and a grand jury over whether he conspired to violate bribery laws in 1979. The Senator, Howard Cannon, Democrat of Nevada, has long been a power in Congress. Sources close to the inquiry said that officials had concluded that the evidence was insufficient to obtain a conviction. [New York Times] Leaving politics for environmentalism, Senator Gaylord Nelson announced that he would become chairman of the Wilderness Society, a national conservation group. Mr. Nelson, a Wisconsin Democrat, was defeated for re-election after three terms. [New York Times] The destructive impact of acid rain on Adirondack Mountain lakes and ponds is wider than previously believed, according to a new scientific study. The study said that 212 of the lakes and ponds were too acidic for fish to live in and that an additional 256 were approaching that condition. [New York Times] The fastest growing city in the nation is San Jose, Calif., where the population rose by 36.1 percent in the last decade, according to preliminary census figures. The shifts in urban population rankings reflected the exodus from the Northeast and Middle West to the South and West. [New York Times] The fatal wounds suffered by Dr. Herman Tarnower were "not consistent with a struggle for a gun," according to testimony by a Westchester County medical examiner at the murder trial of Jean Harris. She has said that Dr. Tarnower died in a struggle over a pistol as she was trying to take her own life. [New York Times] Another halt in Iraqi oil pumping through pipelines was reported. A journal said that the pipeline through Turkey had been closed because of unexplained "electrical problems" and that the ones through Syria had been sabotaged. [New York Times] The Israeli Labor Party nominated its chairman, Shimon Peres, for prime minister in next year's elections. Labor, which overwhelmingly chose Mr. Peres over former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, is expected to defeat Prime Minister Menachem Begin's Likud group in the parliamentary voting, according to polls. Likud has been weakened by severe economic problems. [New York Times] A U.S.-Israeli dispute is resolved. The two countries announced they had settled the controversy over the Israeli air and sea attack on the intelligence ship Liberty during the 1967 war between Israel and Arab countries. The attack took the lives of 34 American Navy personnel. Under the accord, Israel will pay Washington an additional $6 million over three years. [New York Times] A Saudi test of ties with Washington is in prospect. Saudi officials said they would press a request to buy more sophisticated equipment for the F-15 warplanes already on order that President Carter has rejected. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 930.20 (+1.70, +0.18%)
S&P Composite: 133.00 (+0.11, +0.08%)
Arms Index: 1.38

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,093	37.33
Declines	561	26.45
Unchanged	333	5.79
Total Volume		69.57

* 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 17, 1980	928.50	132.89	50.81
December 16, 1980	918.09	130.60	41.62
December 15, 1980	911.60	129.45	39.69
December 12, 1980	917.15	129.23	39.53
December 11, 1980	908.45	127.36	60.24
December 10, 1980	916.21	128.26	49.31
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