News stories from Monday February 2, 1981

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

A balanced budget is more important to many more Americans than is a large tax cut, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. But the survey found little enthusiasm for the reductions in federal spending that President Reagan is likely to propose to balance the budget. [New York Times] Americans want to abide by the accord with Iran that won the release of the 52 hostages, but show almost no interest in revenge or amity toward Teheran, according a New York Times/CBS News Poll. The policy that found the most favor, supported by 55 percent of those polled, affirmed that Washington should "ignore Iran and have nothing to do with it." [New York Times] A willingness to discuss arms cuts was expressed by President Reagan in an interview in the Oval Office. He said he would confer with Soviet leaders whenever they were ready to discuss "a legitimate reduction of nuclear weapons," but he insisted that the United States should have a military "presence" in the Middle East to deter any "reckless" moves by the Soviet Union. [New York Times] The first full-year loss by G.M. since 1921 was reported by the leading auto maker. General Motors managed to earn $62 million in the fourth quarter, but suffered a 1980 loss of $763 million. In the third quarter, General Motors had a loss of $567 million as the American auto industry hit the low point in a sales slump that will result in an estimated loss of $4.06 billion for the Big Three American auto makers -- G.M., Ford and Chrysler. [New York Times] Solvency of the Social Security System is the top goal of the Health and Human Services Department, Richard Schweiker said in his first speech as chief of the department. [New York Times] A Postal Service deficit of $306 million was reported for 1980, in contrast to the 1979 surplus of $470 million. However, Postmaster General William Bolger called 1980 a "banner year" in productivity and in record volume for nearly every category of mail, including the delivery of parcels. [New York Times] Bilingualism in schools was set back by Secretary of Education T. H. Bell. In his first major official act, he revoked rules proposed by the Carter administration that would have required public schools to teach foreign-speaking pupils in their native languages. Mr. Bell said that the proposed rules were "inflexible, burdensome, unworkable" and would have cost about $1 billion over the next five years. [New York Times] Overspending by the Reagan campaign was charged by auditors of the Federal Election Commission. They asserted that Ronald Reagan's campaign committee exceeded the legal spending limits for the 1980 primary in New Hampshire and in the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Such reports do not imply wrongdoing, but reflect disagreements over bookkeeping practices and on interpretation of the law. [New York Times] A sports promotion fraud was alleged by the Wells Fargo National Bank. It said it had been defrauded of $21.3 million by a group of promoters and companies that used the name of Muhammad Ali, the former heavyweight boxing champion. He was not accused of having taken part in the alleged scheme. [New York Times] Philadelphia's schools were struck for the second time in the 1980-81 year, further endangering the financial stability of the system, which is facing a $52.7 million deficit by June 30. Mayor William Green requested the resignation of the school board. The strike was called by 4,300 blue collar workers demanding more pay. [New York Times] A muting of discord over human rights was pressed by President Reagan as he agreed to normalize relations with South Korea. At a White House meeting with President Chun Doo Hwan, Mr. Reagan pledged that the 39,000 American troops now in South Korea would remain there.A report on human rights was delayed by Congress at the request of the Reagan administration, which sought to avoid embarrassing President Chun of South Korea during his visit. The report, analyzing the human rights practices of 160 countries in 1980, was prepared by the Carter administration and was said to be highly critical of the policies in Seoul. [New York Times] Iran asserted its troops had begun major new counterattacks against Iraqi forces and Kurdish insurgents in its northwestern provinces. The war is now in its fifth month. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 932.17 (-15.10, -1.59%)
S&P Composite: 126.91 (-2.64, -2.04%)
Arms Index: 2.34

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	293	3.56
Declines	1,320	37.45
Unchanged	303	3.06
Total Volume		44.07

* 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*
January 30, 1981	947.27	129.55	41.16
January 29, 1981	948.89	130.24	38.16
January 28, 1981	942.58	130.34	36.69
January 27, 1981	949.49	131.12	42.25
January 26, 1981	938.91	129.84	35.37
January 23, 1981	940.19	130.23	37.22
January 22, 1981	940.44	130.26	39.88
January 21, 1981	946.25	131.36	39.19
January 20, 1981	950.68	131.65	41.74
January 19, 1981	970.99	134.37	36.64