News stories from Thursday May 21, 1981

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

An effort to "save Social Security," involving leaders of both parties, was proposed by President Reagan. The President's suggestion that congressional leaders meet with his representative to discuss Social Security legislation came a day after the Senate expressed strong criticism of two major elements of the plan he recently made public. [New York Times] A bipartisan tax bill was held out as a possibility by Treasury Secretary Donald Regan and Jim Wright, the Democratic majority leader in the House of Representatives. Mr. Regan said the administration wanted to write a bipartisan bill with mainstream House Democrats. In a separate interview, Mr. Wright reported that the Democratic leadership might accept a two- or three-year tax bill if President Reagan would allow "a relatively large share" of the benefits to go to middle- and low-income Americans. [New York Times] A withdrawal of the nomination of Ernest Lefever as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs has been requested by Senator Charles Percy, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to administration and congressional officials. Aides to the Senator reported that Mr. Percy told White House officials that Mr. Lefever might "hurt the foreign policy goals" of the administration. [New York Times] President Reagan and Helmut Schmidt discussed international economic problems as they met at the White House. Mr. Reagan assured the West German Chancellor that American interest rates will soon fall when Mr. Reagan's economic program is put into place. [New York Times] The Teamsters' interim president, Roy Williams, should be subject to a determination by the Labor Department as to whether he is suitable for high office in the nation's largest union, a Senate subcommittee recommended. Justice Department officials, meanwhile, said that the government had decided to ask a grand jury to indict Mr. Williams for improperly attempting to influence trucking deregulation legislation. [New York Times] Warnings against cigarette smoking in cigarette advertisements are not effective and a new warning system may be necessary, according to a report sent to Congress by the Federal Trade Commission. The report, based on five years of study, tentatively recommended that the shape of the current warning be changed and that its size be increased. The commission said it had not determined what actions would be taken. [New York Times] A pipe bomb was defused after being found taped to the chassis of a private garbage truck entering a garage at the United Nations, a little more than an hour after a telephone caller warned the police that six bombs had been placed in the "basement" of the United Nations complex. [New York Times] The U.S. Office of Surface Mining will be "realigned" under a plan disclosed by Secretary of the Interior James Watt. The plan would abolish the agency's five regional offices, which oversee implementation of joint federal-state strip mine regulation, and open smaller liaison offices in 14 states and nine other field offices. [New York Times] The next ambassador to China expected to be named by President Reagan is Arthur Hummel, a Chinese-speaking career Foreign Service officer who was born in China nearly 61 years ago, administration officials said. At the same time, officials said, Harry Barnes, who had been Director General of the Foreign Service, is expected to be named ambassador to India. [New York Times] Two military patrols into Laos were conducted on orders from the Reagan administration in response to "tantalizing hints" that American prisoners of war were still alive in that country, administration officials said. The long-range patrols, made up mostly of Laotians and mounted with the cognizance of the State and Defense Departments, did not bring back the evidence they sought, the officials said. [New York Times] Francois Mitterrand became President of France and the first Socialist to wield the strong presidential powers of the French Fifth Republic. Mr. Mitterrand's first major act was to name as Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy, the Mayor of Lille and one of the leading figures in the ideological center of the French Socialist Party. [New York Times] Syrian missiles mast be removed not only from Lebanon but also from Syrian territory near the Lebanese border, Prime Minister Menachem Begin said in a television interview. The broadening of demands by the Israeli leader, which included the demand that Syria not fire antiaircraft missies from its own territory at Israeli planes over Lebanon, was expected to complicate efforts to resolve the conflict. [New York Times] An embargo on South Africa involving United States arms and investments should be maintained until the black majority in that country obtains "an effective share in political power," according to a major private study of United States policy choices in southern Africa prepared by 11 prominent Americans under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 976.59 (-0.27, -0.03%)
S&P Composite: 131.75 (-0.25, -0.19%)
Arms Index: 0.87

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	705	20.77
Declines	816	20.86
Unchanged	382	5.19
Total Volume		46.82

* 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*
May 20, 1981	976.86	132.00	42.37
May 19, 1981	980.01	132.09	42.21
May 18, 1981	985.77	132.54	42.51
May 15, 1981	985.95	132.17	45.46
May 14, 1981	973.07	131.28	42.75
May 13, 1981	967.76	130.55	42.59
May 12, 1981	970.82	130.72	40.34
May 11, 1981	963.44	129.71	37.63
May 8, 1981	976.40	131.66	41.85
May 7, 1981	978.39	131.67	42.59