News stories from Tuesday April 28, 1981

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

President Reagan exhorted Congress to approve his proposed spending cuts and tax reductions as "the only answer we have left" to combat inflation and unemployment. In a dramatic appearance before a joint session of the House and Senate marking his first extensive public appearance since the attempt on his life a month ago, Mr. Reagan said that he had recovered while the economy had not, and he called for a bipartisan effort to bring this about. [New York Times] Mr. Reagan's sense of political theater was evident on Capitol Hill as he expounded the expansive patriotic rhetoric that he used so often and effectively on the campaign stump. To prepare himself for his return to public activity, he endured painful deep-breathing exercises and spent time on a treadmill despite an old knee injury. [New York Times] A Democratic budget initiative calling for no deficit for the fiscal year 1982 was being weighed by the party's leaders in the House. In the Senate, the Budget Committee reversed a previous administration defeat and voted, 14 to 7, to adopt a $699 billion budget, with $188 billion for the military and with a deficit of $48.7 billion. [New York Times] A military budget victory for the administration was tendered by the Senate Armed Services Committee. It approved and sent to the floor a $134.4 billion authorization bill for various military programs. [New York Times] Three key nominees were confirmed by a 16-to-0 vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee despite the opposition of Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina. The nominees for high State Department posts are Myer Rashish, Chester Crocker and Robert Hormats. [New York Times] A move to restore labor unity was reported as the United Automobile Workers announced that its rank and file convention delegates had voted overwhelmingly lo authorize the union's reaffiliation with the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Officials of both the union and the federation said that a reaffiliation of the two groups, which parted in 1968, was virtually certain. [New York Times] Lower achievement in schools across the country was reported by the government, which said that the inferential reasoning of 13-year-olds and 17-year-olds declined in reading tests in the 1970's. But the survey found that black pupils had improved scores, narrowing a gap behind whites. The gain was credited largely to federal remedial programs that face severe cuts under administration plans. [New York Times] Another slaying in Atlanta was linked to asphyxiation. Medical examiners attributed the death of Jimmy Ray Payne to the same cause as 14 other murders. Twenty-six young blacks have died in a series of unsolved slayings in the last 21 months. [New York Times] Boston's insolvent school system must remain open for the rest of the academic year, a judge ruled. The order, which was issued after attempts to reach a political solution to the crisis had failed, made no provision for financing the system, which has spent its annual appropriation. [New York Times] A setback for antipollution efforts was likely to result from a 6-to-3 decision by the Supreme Court. It ruled that federal courts may not impose water pollution standards more stringent than those set by Congress in the Clean Water Act of 1972. [New York Times] Congressmen assailed the White House over President Reagan's decisions to end the curbs on grain sales to the Soviet Union and to sell sophisticated surveillance planes to Saudi Arabia. Testifying before a House subcommittee, Secretary of State Alexander Haig found no support for the two moves from any of the dozen Democratic or Republican Representatives present. [New York Times] Israeli jets moved against Syrians in central Lebanon for the first time in the recent heavy fighting. The jet fighters shot down two Syrian helicopters in what was described as an official warning that Israel would not allow the Syrians to defeat the Lebanese Christians. [New York Times] No sale of Bonn arms to Saudi Arabia is possible now, according to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. He told Saudi leaders in Riyadh that differences among West Germans over the issue of exporting weapons to the Middle East were intense. [New York Times] An effort to help calm Northern Ireland was initiated by Pope John Paul II, who sent his private secretary to the troubled province. Robert Sands, an Irish Republican Army guerrilla, continued a prison hunger strike for the 59th day, and friends said he could not speak and looked like a skeleton. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1016.93 (-7.12, -0.70%)
S&P Composite: 134.33 (-1.15, -0.85%)
Arms Index: 0.94

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	443	14.94
Declines	1,179	37.39
Unchanged	315	5.88
Total Volume		58.21

* 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*
April 27, 1981	1024.05	135.48	51.08
April 24, 1981	1020.35	135.14	59.90
April 23, 1981	1010.27	133.94	64.20
April 22, 1981	1007.02	134.14	60.65
April 21, 1981	1005.94	134.23	60.29
April 20, 1981	1015.94	135.45	51.01
April 16, 1981	1005.58	134.70	52.95
April 15, 1981	1001.71	134.17	56.03
April 14, 1981	989.10	132.68	48.39
April 13, 1981	993.16	133.15	49.85