News stories from Monday September 20, 1982

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

Efforts to halt a rail strike were pressed by President Reagan. He asked Congress to enact emergency legislation to end the two-day-old walkout by 26,000 locomotive engineers that has curtailed freight and passenger service across much of the country. Union officials have indicated they would comply with a directive from Congress to accept contract recommendations made by an emergency board. [New York Times] The rail strike forced the closing of coal mines and at least one auto assembly plant, and 250,000 commuters struggled to find alternative ways to travel. Immense traffic jams snarled streets in Chicago and many other cities, and thousands of freight cars stood idle on sidings. [New York Times] Professional football players struck in a contract dispute with team owners. It is the first in-season strike in the National Football League's 63-year history. The walkout was set to begin after tonight's game between the Giants and the Green Bay Packers in Giants Stadium. [New York Times] A dispute over Medicare aid erupted in the Reagan administration. Richard Schweiker, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, said he would resist proposals by the federal budget office to require the elderly to prove financial need as a condition for receiving medical benefits. [New York Times] Doubts on Princess Grace's diagnosis by French physicians after her auto accident last week have been expressed by many American doctors. Among other issues, they question the interpretation of brain CAT scans before her death. Telephone interviews with her two doctors in Monaco shed some light on the issues but did not fully clarify them. [New York Times] A return of peacekeepers to Beirut to help the Lebanese government maintain order and prevent further killings has been agreed on by the United States, France and Italy, President Reagan announced. A senior State Department official said Israel must approve the reintroduction of the three-nation peace force and agree to pull back its forces. [New York Times] Evidence of Israeli knowledge that Palestinians were being killed in Beirut emerged in Jerusalem. The evidence indicated that senior Israeli military commanders and government officials apparently knew about the murders 24 to 36 hours before the Israeli army acted to halt them. The massacre has prompted widespread grief and outrage in Israel. [New York Times] Lebanon's cabinet agreed to a return to Beirut by the American, French and Italian peacekeeping force. So terrified are the Palestinian and Lebanese Moslems of the prospect of more killings by Christian militiamen that hundreds of men, women and children stampeded into the heart of West Beirut after hearing rumors that the militiamen were returning to their neighborhoods. [New York Times] Survivors and witnesses recounted the assault on the Palestinian refugee camps. A woman who said she barely escaped being slain wailed as she learned that at least 30 of her relatives and friends had been killed. [New York Times] Egypt recalled its Ambassador in Israel because of the massacre of Palestinians in West Beirut. [New York Times] Jewish-American leaders said Israel should not be blamed for the mass slayings of Palestinians. The heads of 30 major organizations said they were shocked and horrified by the killings, but expressed disbelief that the Israeli government had been directly involved in the massacre or had foreknowledge of it. [New York Times] Opposition parties in Bonn agreed to choose Helmut Kohl to succeed Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor. After the accord was reached by leaders of the Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats, they were forced to postpone plans for a no-confidence vote on Chancellor Schmidt's Government until Oct. 1. [New York Times] Knowledge about the ocean floors is being radically altered by an array of new devices for making prolonged and detailed observations of the lower regions of the sea. Recent discoveries show that many parts of the sea depths are beset by violent "benthic storms" that scour the bottom and by enormous currents to which surface currents give little clue. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 916.30 (-0.64, -0.07%)
S&P Composite: 122.51 (-0.04, -0.03%)
Arms Index: 1.02

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	604	19.81
Declines	900	30.20
Unchanged	409	8.51
Total Volume		58.52

* 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 17, 1982	916.94	122.55	63.94
September 16, 1982	927.80	123.77	78.89
September 15, 1982	930.46	124.29	69.67
September 14, 1982	923.01	123.10	83.06
September 13, 1982	918.69	122.24	59.51
September 10, 1982	906.82	120.97	71.07
September 9, 1982	912.53	121.97	73.08
September 8, 1982	915.75	122.20	77.95
September 7, 1982	914.28	121.37	68.96
September 3, 1982	925.13	122.68	130.90