News stories from Wednesday June 17, 1981

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

A budget rebuff for President Reagan is in prospect. Many conservative Democrats, who hold the balance of power in the House, said they would back the Democratic leadership and oppose the President in the coming vote on a package of $37 billion in specific budget cuts. Mr. Reagan's attack on House Speaker Tip O'Neill, whom he accused of "sheer demagoguery" on Tuesday, appeared to have united the Democrats. [New York Times] President Reagan tried to make peace with House Speaker O'Neill in apparent regret over his public denunciation of Mr. O'Neill. But White House officials were uncertain as to whether the President's telephone call to the Democratic leader would heal the rupture, which has been growing because of the budget battle and the pressure of their rival political roles. [New York Times] Air controllers rejected a proposal for a new contract that would provide $40 million a year in benefits and broke oil negotiations with the government. The air-traffic regulators' union has threatened a national walkout starting Monday and the government warned it would take stringent measures to combat "an illegal strike." [New York Times] Shifts in the Reagan press office were announced amid signs that senior White House officials have been dissatisfied with its recent operations. In the major change, David Gergen, the White House staff director who wrote speeches for President Nixon, was appointed supervisor of press operations and speechwriting. [New York Times] Prince Charles visited New York City for the first time and was greeted with the glittering panoply usually reserved for heads of state. The heir to the British throne was guarded by more than 1,700 police officers and escorted by about 300 State Department and Secret Service officers in a day that included a helicopter flight over Manhattan, a luncheon cruise with Nancy Reagan, a reception and a formal ball in a vast tent at Lincoln Center. [New York Times] Broad mine inspections were upheld by the Supreme Court. By a vote of 8 to 1, the Justices ruled that the 1977 law allowing federal safety officials to conduct unexpected inspections without warrants was constitutional. [New York Times] Workers must be protected from toxins to the greatest extent feasible without regard to a balance between costs and benefits, according to a Supreme Court ruling. The 5-to-3 decision upheld the federal standards developed in the Carter administration for exposure to cotton dust, which causes "brown lung disease" among textile workers. The Reagan administration opposes the standards. [New York Times] French oversight of an Iraqi reactor was insured under a secret accord, the government in Paris reported. It said that the pact would have made it impossible for Baghdad to make nuclear weapons without being detected at the reactor destroyed by Israeli jets on June 7. Under the agreement, France was to have kept scientists working at the reactor until 1989. They were authorized to watch all nuclear experiments and to check the reactor afterward. [New York Times] Iraq's nuclear objectives were discussed by Under Secretary of State Walter Stoessel in House testimony. He said that the administration was "concerned" about Iraq's nuclear program, but that it did not agree with Israel's assertion that the reactor destroyed by Israeli jets was designed to produce nuclear arms. [New York Times] A compromise resolution on Israel was being sought by the United States in talks with Iraq. Jeane Kirkpatrick, the American delegate at the United Nations, has been conferring with Saadun Hamadi, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, in an effort for agreement on a resolution that would condemn Israel's attack on the Iraqi reactor, but omit a call for an arms embargo, which would prompt a United States veto. [New York Times] A U.S.-Chinese intelligence project was disclosed by senior United States officials. They said that the two countries were jointly operating an electronic surveillance station to monitor Soviet missile tests. The highly secret facility was opened last year in a remote region in western China. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1006.56 (+3.23, +0.32%)
S&P Composite: 133.32 (+1.17, +0.89%)
Arms Index: 0.68

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	782	29.88
Declines	751	19.58
Unchanged	376	6.01
Total Volume		55.47

* 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*
June 16, 1981	1003.33	132.15	57.77
June 15, 1981	1011.99	133.61	63.34
June 12, 1981	1006.28	133.49	60.79
June 11, 1981	1007.42	133.75	59.53
June 10, 1981	993.88	132.32	53.20
June 9, 1981	994.44	131.97	44.61
June 8, 1981	995.64	132.24	41.57
June 5, 1981	993.79	132.22	47.18
June 4, 1981	986.74	130.96	48.94
June 3, 1981	989.71	130.71	54.70