News stories from Monday August 31, 1981

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

A pay increase for Federal employees who make less than $50,112 a year was recommended to Congress by President Reagan. The proposed 4.8 percent raise is less than one-third of the 15.1 percent increase that would be necessary for federal employees to keep pace with pay in the private sector for comparable jobs. [New York Times] Thrift institutions were in disarray over a weekend warning by the Internal Revenue Service that it might not permit the tax-free incentives for the new "All Savers" certificates that are sold through a repurchase agreement that yields a high interest. Many of the savings banks and savings and loan associations shelved the plans pending a definitive I.R.S. ruling, which is expected this week. [New York Times] Conservative groups were rebuked by A. Bartlett Giamatti, the president of Yale University, who termed them "peddlers of coercion" in "a radical assault" on pluralism, civil rights and religious and political freedoms. He also expressed concern that many political and religious leaders appeared to be intimidated into silence by the Moral Majority. [New York Times] A desegregation dispute in Cleveland prompted a federal judge to send the president and treasurer of the Board of Education to jail for nearly two hours. The judge found the two officials in contempt for failing to comply with orders from a court-appointed desegregation adminstrator. [New York Times] Proposed deregulation of cable TV has generated a heated dispute betweed mayors across the country and the Senate. The mayors are trying to organize a broad coalition of public and private interests in an effort to defeat a bill approved by the Senate Commerce Committee that would curtail local governmental control over the burgeoning industry. [New York Times] Dependency on American food is rising dramatically around the world. The volume of United States farm exports has nearly tripled in the last decade, but doubts about whether the aggressive export policy is advantageous for other countries or even the United States are increasing. [New York Times] The Voyager 2's journey to Uranus will cover one billion more miles over 4½ years. Scientists know so little about the distant planet that they have few preconceptions of what the spacecraft may find there. [New York Times] An effort to find a second sunken safe aboard the Andrea Doria was abandoned by a diving expedition, which plans to leave the liner and return to Montauk, N.Y., on Wednesday. Drew Ruddy, the diver who found the first safe aboard the 25-year-old shipwreck off Nantucket, recommended that the adventurers "say goodbye to the Doria on our terms and not let her tell us when to get out." [New York Times] Iran buried its slain President and Prime Minister, and Ayatollah Khomeini vowed that their deaths would not change the course of the Islamic revolution. Hundreds of thousands of wailing, chanting demonstrators massed in Teheran for the funeral procession. The Speaker of Parliament and the Chief Justice were named to run the country, pending elections. [New York Times] American support for South Africa was indicated at the United Nations. The United States, in a major break with its allies, vetoed a Security Council resolution strongly criticizing South Africa for its raid into Angola on the ground that the resolution did not put the incursion in the "context" of repeated attacks by guerrillas into South-West Africa from bases in Angola. [New York Times] An American general was injured, along with 19 other persons, when a powerful explosion went off at the European headquarters of the United States Air Force in Ramstein, West Germany. Bonn authorities were investigating the possibility that the blast resulted from a bomb, possibly planted by leftist terrorists. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 881.47 (-10.75, -1.20%)
S&P Composite: 122.79 (-1.29, -1.04%)
Arms Index: 1.86

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	495	7.48
Declines	1,017	28.56
Unchanged	383	4.32
Total Volume		40.36

* 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*
August 28, 1981	892.22	124.08	38.02
August 27, 1981	889.08	123.51	43.91
August 26, 1981	899.26	124.96	39.98
August 25, 1981	901.83	125.13	54.60
August 24, 1981	900.11	125.50	46.74
August 21, 1981	920.57	129.23	37.67
August 20, 1981	928.37	130.69	38.27
August 19, 1981	926.46	130.49	39.39
August 18, 1981	924.37	130.11	47.26
August 17, 1981	926.75	131.22	40.84