News stories from Thursday September 17, 1981

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

Deferrals of cost-of-living increases in at least eight benefit programs from food stamps to Social Security to veterans' pensions will be sought by the Reagan administration. Officials said President Reagan will also push for a 12 percent cutback in government appropriations for the next fiscal year as well as the gradual elmination of the entire $6.4 billion general revenue sharing program. [New York Times] Restoring the dollar's link to gold, a notion that for many years has been kept alive mainly by gold zealots, may be explored by the Reagan administration amid market skepticism about its economic program. While there is no clear evidence that the President has such a plan under active consideration, the issue of whether to establish a gold standard is moving to center stage. [New York Times] Moderate Republicans threatened to oppose President Reagan's next round of budget cuts unless military spending for the fiscal year 1982 is reduced by $9 billion. About two dozen moderate Republicans, known informally as "the gypsy moths," hope to persuade Mr. Reagan that that the $2 billion cut in military spending that he has suggested is not enough. [New York Times] Proposed cutbacks in food aid programs, sought by the Reagan administration, have angered advocates of the programs because they will, among other things, disqualify one million of the 23 million American now receiving food stamps and reduce the amount of food stamps others would get by about 10 percent. [New York Times] The coalition of farm state senators was reassembled as the Senate rejected an amendment that would have prohibited price supports for sugar. The traditional coalition regrouped after Agriculture Committee leaders warned that further disunity could endanger chances of passing any farm legislation this fall that President Reagan would accept. [New York Times] A program to aid engineering colleges with a shortage of faculty members was announced by the Exxon Education Foundation, which will both support doctoral students headed for teaching careers and provide salary supplements for younger professors with $15 million in grants. [New York Times] President Reagan conferred with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada and President Jose Lopez Portillo of Mexico on arriving in Grand Rapids, Mich., for the dedication of the Gerald Ford Museum. The informal meetings were intended to lessen strains between the United States and its neighbors. [New York Times] A fossil jaw of an unknown mammal has been discovered on a Navajo Indian reservation in northeastern Arizona, reported the Harvard University paleontologist who led the discovery team. The finding has provided the first evidence that mammalians lived in North America as early as the Late Triassic or Early Jurassic periods some 180 million years ago. [New York Times] A massive car bomb killed 23 people, most of them civilians, when it was detonated outside a main Palestinian and leftist guerilla command center in southern Lebanon. A right-wing group claimed responsibility. [New York Times] Opposition to the sale of Awacs radar planes and other air warfare equipment to Saudi Arabia gained as a clear majority of the Senate publicly lined up against President Reagan's arms sale proposal. While the development did not spell final defeat for the President, it clearly threatened the possibility of a serious political defeat for him and a possible setback in relations with Saudi Arabia. [New York Times] The Russians demanded the silencing by Polish authorities of an "unbridled" anti-Soviet drive by Solidarity and other dissidents that had reached "dangerous limits." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 840.09 (-11.51, -1.35%)
S&P Composite: 117.15 (-1.72, -1.45%)
Arms Index: 1.83

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	368	6.56
Declines	1,157	37.79
Unchanged	383	3.95
Total Volume		48.30

* 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 16, 1981	851.60	118.87	43.62
September 15, 1981	858.35	119.77	38.58
September 14, 1981	866.15	120.66	34.04
September 11, 1981	872.81	121.61	42.16
September 10, 1981	862.44	120.14	47.40
September 9, 1981	853.68	118.40	43.90
September 8, 1981	851.12	117.98	47.33
September 4, 1981	861.68	120.07	42.75
September 3, 1981	867.01	121.24	41.72
September 2, 1981	884.23	123.49	37.57