News stories from Wednesday September 23, 1981

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

Doubt over the latest economic plans of the administration persisted on the eve of a televised speech tomorrow night by President Reagan. The President, hastily reshaping his proposals to improve their prospects in Congress, was said to be reluctant to commit himself to the detailed list of $16 billion in spending reductions that his aides had previously said would be included in the address. [New York Times] Major cuts in military spending were outlined by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in House testimony. He said that the Titan intercontinental missile would be retired, an Army division would be reduced to skeleton status and 29 Navy vessels would be withdrawn from service to reduce military budgets by $13 billion over the next three years. [New York Times] President Nixon was so angered over the civil disorders during the 1971 May Day demonstrations in Washington that he endorsed a suggestion that "thugs" from the Teamsters' Union be used to physically assault the anti-Vietnam war demonstrators. A newly disclosed White House tape recording shows that President Nixon animatedly discussed the idea of hiring teamsters to, as he put it, "go in and knock their heads off." [New York Times] Disclosure of the identity of agents carrying out secret intelligence activities would be a crime under a bill approved, 354 to 56, in the House. The amended measure was assailed by critics as unconstitutional. [New York Times] A doctors' reference scandal is to be investigated by the Massachusetts Medical Society. Three physicians at a maior Boston hospital wrote highly laudatory letters recommending a colleague, Dr. Arif Hussain, several days after he was sentenced to jail for raping a nurse. In recent years, doctors have become reluctant to write anything critical about colleagues because of fear of lawsuits. [New York Times] The political import of New Jersey, one of only two states holding gubernatorial elections this year, was underscored in a visit by Vice President Bush and Raymond Donovan, the Secretary of Labor. They campaigned for Thomas Kean, the Republican candidate for Governor. [New York Times] Disorders swept West German cities after a teenager was killed in a clash between the police and evicted squatters in West Berlin. Young people smashed shop windows, vandalized cars, set fires and rampaged through the streets. [New York Times] High-level U.S.-Soviet talks opened between Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. They conferred for more than four hours in New York on the issues dividing the two countries and agreed to announce tomorrow that new negotiations would begin on reductions of medium-range nuclear forces in Europe. [New York Times] A Soviet nuclear advantage in Europe is growing, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. In issuing the warning, the private London research group reaffirmed its support for Atlantic alliance plans to deploy new missiles. [New York Times] The Polish union's bid to compromise on the issue of managerial appointments could ease the confrontation with the authorities, according to official sources in Warsaw. Union leaders have agreed to a proposal that the government keep the right to appoint managers as long as workers have a veto over the appointments. [New York Times] A purge of left-wing Iranian students and teachers was ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini in a Teheran broadcast. Parents of children as young as 7 said they had had to sign a commitment that their children would not even take part in ideological discussions at school. [New York Times] Paris disagreed with Washington on international aid, calling for a big increase in efforts to promote third world development. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Claude Cheysson, the French Foreign Minister, urged the industrialized nations to provide "tens of billions of dollars" in assistance. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 840.94 (-4.76, -0.56%)
S&P Composite: 115.65 (-1.03, -0.88%)
Arms Index: 0.82

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	309	11.02
Declines	1,274	37.21
Unchanged	311	4.47
Total Volume		52.70

* 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*
September 22, 1981	845.70	116.68	46.81
September 21, 1981	846.56	117.24	44.56
September 18, 1981	836.19	116.25	47.34
September 17, 1981	840.09	117.15	48.29
September 16, 1981	851.60	118.87	43.62
September 15, 1981	858.35	119.77	38.58
September 14, 1981	866.15	120.66	34.04
September 11, 1981	872.81	121.61	42.16
September 10, 1981	862.44	120.14	47.40
September 9, 1981	853.68	118.40	43.90