News stories from Tuesday June 23, 1981

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

Inflation continued to moderate last month, in the view of economists, as the government reported that the Consumer Price Index rose by seven-tenths of 1 percent. More than 80 percent of the May advance was prompted by housing, mainly reflecting higher prices and mortgage interest rates. The index has registered an annual inflation rate of less than 10 percent for three consecutive months for the first time since the spring of 1978. [New York Times] A drive to complete a tax-relief bill by Thursday was pressed by the Senate Finance Committee. It approved eight types of special tax breaks for individuals and businesses, including an easing of the "marriage penalty" paid by some two-earner couples. [New York Times] Republicans prevailed on budget cuts in party-line votes in the Republican-controlled Senate. By a vote of 53 to 45, the chamber rejected a Democratic proposal to restore $925 million in proposed reductions in the Social Security program by continuing the $122-a-month minimum benefit that the administration wants to abolish. [New York Times] President Reagan faced a major snag in pursuit of his economic program. Gov. George Busbee of Georgia, a Democrat who is the chairman of the National Governors Association, withheld his support for the program because of dissatisfaction over planned reductions in Medicaid. [New York Times] A new air traffic anti-collision system has been developed, Lynn Helms, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, announced. He said that purchase of the airborne equipment, which would be independent of anything on the ground, would be voluntary, at least initially, but he said that he planned to have the system in operation by the end of 1984. [New York Times] A murder indictment In Atlanta will be sought within 30 days against Wayne Williams, a music promoter, in the most recent of the 28 slayings of young blacks, the prosecutor promised. The case was sent to a grand jury after a heavily guarded three-hour preliminary hearing. [New York Times] A fire roared across the Napa Valley in California, consuming more than 25,000 acres, destroying dozens of large homes and injuring at least 10 people. Hundreds fled as 1,100 firefighters sought to contain the blaze, which was set by an arsonist. [New York Times] Power to issue search warrants authorizing federal agents to examine private property is not held by a special court established to regulate the use of electronic surveillance in foreign intelligence, according to a ruling by the court. The decision left the government free, as in the past, to conduct physical searches in intelligence cases on the orders of the President or the Attorney General without getting search warrants. [New York Times] The offer to sell U.S. arms to China was denounced by Cyrus Vance, a Secretary of State in the Carter administration, as "needlessly provocative." In an interview, Mr. Vance said that the new policy of the Reagan administration "has substantially diminished" any influence the United States had over the Soviet Union. [New York Times] Moscow's deep concern about Poland and its importance to Soviet strategic interests was emphasized in a series of Soviet commentaries and a tough article in Pravda. The warnings of a security threat evoked the bitter memories of the German invasion of the Soviet Union 40 years ago. [New York Times] A call for nuclear arms aid to Arabs to balance what was termed Israel's nuclear capability was issued by President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. It was his first public reaction to the Israeli air strike on June 7 that destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. [New York Times] An accord among French leftists led to the appointment of four Communists to the 44-member cabinet of President Francois Mitterrand in the wake of the Socialist Party's sweeping legislative election triumphs. The four posts are not politically sensitive. In return, the Communist Party has agreed to support some Socialist policies in foreign and domestic areas that it had opposed. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1006.66 (+12.46, +1.25%)
S&P Composite: 133.35 (+1.40, +1.06%)
Arms Index: 0.54

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	981	35.06
Declines	581	11.14
Unchanged	366	5.64
Total Volume		51.84

* 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 22, 1981	994.20	131.95	41.79
June 19, 1981	996.19	132.27	46.42
June 18, 1981	995.15	131.64	48.40
June 17, 1981	1006.56	133.32	55.47
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