News stories from Wednesday November 18, 1981

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

A plan to cut environmental funds further has prompted a dispute within the Reagan administration. The budget office has proposed reducing the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency by 36 percent in the fiscal year 1983. Cuts of at least 16 percent have already been imposed in the 1981 and 1982 fiscal years. Administration officials said that Anne Gorsuch, the agency chief, had contended that the latest cuts would throw the agency into disarray. [New York Times] Big military spending was approved by the House in a strong endorsement of President Reagan's armament strategy. The Representatives passed a $197.4 billion appropriation that includes funds to continue development of the B-1 manned bomber and the MX missile. The two controversial programs will cost $180 billion over the next six years. [New York Times] Increased farm subsidies and loans on wheat and corn over the next four years were approved by a House-Senate conference. The compromise moved the conferees closer to accord on a farm bill that could cost the taxpayers at least $11 billion. [New York Times] Edward Kennedy was hailed by union members as he accused the Reagan administration of destroying vital social programs. The A.F.L.-C.I.O convention interrupted the Senator from Massachusetts more than 20 times as he pledged to join with labor to restore "compassion and concern" to government. [New York Times] The first statewide recount of a gubernatorial election in New Jersey began in all 21 counties. Under the gaze of lawyers for Thomas Kean, the Republican candidate, and James Florio, the Democrat who sought the new tally, officials began recounting 2.289 million votes. An official said he had heard of "very few changes and very few problems." [New York Times] An American arms control plan was presented by President Reagan. Urging that both Washington and Moscow act to avoid "the dread threat of nuclear war," he announced he had proposed to the Kremlin cancellation of plans for new American intermediate-range missiles in Europe in return for the dismantling of comparable Soviet nuclear forces. [New York Times] Moscow dismissed the arms proposals offered by President Reagan as a ploy designed to scuttle the Geneva talks on controls and to blunt the anti-nuclear movement in Western Europe. A dispatch by Tass questioned Mr. Reagan's assertion that Moscow was superior in medium-range weapons and called his figures "fantastic." [New York Times] The arms control plan was praised warmly by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The West German and British leaders held a joint news conference after talks in Bonn. [New York Times] No action against Richard Allen by the Reagan administration is necessary, according to an initial oral report from the F.B.I. that was cited by the White House. The report followed a preliminary investigation of a $1,000 cash payment received by Mr. Allen, the President's national security adviser, from a Japanese journalist who had been granted an interview with Nancy Reagan. [New York Times] The holding of migrant farm workers against their will is a serious and continuing problem, according to advocates of the workers and the Justice Department official who monitors the problem. A lawyer for the workers said that the incidence of enslavement and peonage was also increasing in the Florida-to-New York migrant stream and involved at least 15 labor contractors. [New York Times] Young people's views about the aged are invariably incorrect, according to a survey of 3,400 Americans that was taken as a prelude to the upcoming White House Conference on Aging. For example, the survey, conducted by Louis Harris, reported that 68 percent of those under age 65 thought that lack of money was a "very serious problem" for those over 65, but only 17 percent of the older group confirmed it was a problem. [New York Times] Britain sent more troops to Ulster in response to renewed violence and tension. The dispatch of 600 paratroopers, which brings British troop strength in Northern Ireland to just over 11,000, is designed not only to augment patrols in troubled areas, but also to placate militant Protestants. [New York Times] Canadian socialists regained power in the western province of Manitoba after four years of conservative rule. The leftist New Democratic Party, which also governs Saskatchewan, won decisively amid wide discontent with policies that seem unable to prevent Canada from following the United States into recession. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 844.06 (-6.11, -0.72%)
S&P Composite: 120.26 (-0.89, -0.73%)
Arms Index: 1.21

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	743	19.42
Declines	732	23.07
Unchanged	440	7.49
Total Volume		49.98

* 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*
November 17, 1981	850.17	121.15	43.19
November 16, 1981	845.03	120.24	43.74
November 13, 1981	855.88	121.67	45.57
November 12, 1981	860.54	123.19	55.71
November 11, 1981	857.12	122.92	41.94
November 10, 1981	853.98	122.70	53.93
November 9, 1981	855.21	123.29	48.30
November 6, 1981	852.45	122.67	43.26
November 5, 1981	859.11	123.54	50.86
November 4, 1981	866.82	124.74	53.47