News stories from Tuesday March 3, 1981

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

An added $33.8 billion for the military will be asked of Congress today by the Reagan administration for the 1981 and 1982 fiscal years, according to defense officials. They said that the request would include nearly $1 billion more for the Rapid Deployment Force and for improving military facilities in the Indian Ocean region. [New York Times] Arms purchases on long-term orders will be proposed by the Reagan administration in an experiment that officials hope could save more than $1 billion a year by 1985, according to administration officials. But the alternative to buying arms on annual contracts is likely to stir controversy in Congress because the long-term contracts would be difficult to alter. [New York Times] A revamping of cost-of-living policy under which automatic increases are granted to Social Security recipients, federal retirees and beneficiaries of such programs as food stamps and child nutrition was recommended by the General Accounting Office. The proposal was tentatively rejected by the Reagan administration as politically unfeasible. [New York Times] A drive to unionize office workers was announced jointly by the 650,000-member Service Employees International Union and the 10,000-member Working Women, a national group of office employees. They will seek to organize the nation's 20 million clerical workers, most of whom are women. [New York Times] A negotiated peace in El Salvador will be sought this weekend in West Germany by President Jose Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador, according to sources close to him. West Germany's two major parties have been in close contact with both the junta and the left-wing insurgents and have reportedly sounded out possibilities for peace talks. [New York Times] No likelihood of combat involvement in El Salvador by American forces is foreseen by the administration, President Reagan said. He denied that there was any parallel between the planned increase in military advisory aid in the conflict and the beginning of American involvement in Vietnam.Increased military aid to El Salvador will be supported by Congress, according to Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, the majority leader. He made the prediction despite what he termed a "high level of concern" about the plan among many Senators and opposition by liberal Democrats in both the Senate and the House. [New York Times] Optimism for an Iraqi-Iranian truce was indicated by an Islamic commission. It decided that its three-day visit to the countries this week was so promising that it would return to Teheran today. The panel sent Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to Teheran to make arrangements for the new talks. [New York Times] No early accord on ocean resources is now in prospect. In a major decision, the Reagan administration said that it would not go along with previously agreed-upon efforts to conclude a treaty this spring at the United Nations Law of the Seas Conference to regulate the use of the oceans and their riches. State Department officials said that a factor in the delay was pressure by private mining interests. [New York Times] The plot against Spain's government began late last year after a group of senior generals and colonels conferred in Madrid on their fears that the civilian regime was leading the nation to disaster. High military emissaries expressed their concern to King Juan Carlos, who insisted he did not have the constitutional power to remove Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez. In early January, key officials said, Mr. Suarez's military intelligence informed him of two plots for a coup, and he decided to resign to forestall them. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 966.02 (-11.97, -1.22%)
S&P Composite: 130.56 (-1.45, -1.10%)
Arms Index: 1.46

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	635	14.19
Declines	867	28.36
Unchanged	394	6.18
Total Volume		48.73

* 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*
March 2, 1981	977.99	132.01	47.71
February 27, 1981	974.58	131.27	53.20
February 26, 1981	966.81	130.10	60.31
February 25, 1981	954.40	128.52	45.71
February 24, 1981	946.10	127.39	43.96
February 23, 1981	945.23	127.35	39.59
February 20, 1981	936.09	126.58	41.90
February 19, 1981	933.36	126.61	41.64
February 18, 1981	947.10	128.48	40.42
February 17, 1981	939.68	127.81	37.94