News stories from Wednesday October 6, 1982

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

A new system of Medicare payments to hospitals was proposed by Richard Schweiker, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Under the plan, which is designed to curb the burgeoning costs of health care, the federal government would pay all hospitals the same fixed amount for treating patients suffering from the same illness. Under the system that took effect 16 years ago, Medicare has generally paid hospitals for all reasonable costs they incurred in treating elderly and disabled patients. [New York Times] A Tylenol-cyanide death in April was disclosed by the police in Philadelphia. They said Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules discovered in the apartment of a student whose death six months ago was ruled a suicide had been found to contain the poison. The deaths of seven persons in the Chicago area traced to cyanide-tainted Tylenol led the police to re-examine the Philadelphia capsules. [New York Times] Auto union members are rejecting a tentative contract with the Chrysler Corporation by a 2-1 margin in early voting. Union leaders cautioned that most of the 50,000 employed unionists had not yet voted and said the final outcome was uncertain. Local union leaders attribute the opposition to a provision that links wage increases to Chrysler profits. [New York Times] A shift in federal housing grants is being considered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to an official. He said the agency was studying the possibility of transferring more than $1 billion in aid from local public housing authorities to the cities and states. [New York Times] President Reagan was interrupted in mid-speech by a Republican heckler at the White House and, shifting from surprise to anger, bluntly told the man, "Shut up!" The heckler accused Mr. Reagan of abandoning conservative principles, asserting that "we have Reagan-mortis setting into the nation's body politic." [New York Times] Lewis Lehrman proposed tax cuts in pressing his Republican drive for Governor of New York. He called for reducing the state's personal income tax by 40 percent over eight years, cutting the sales tax in half, to 2 percent, and also urged reductions in taxes on business, capital gains and inheritances. Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo, the Democratic candidate, said the plan would do for the state what President Reagan's program has done for the nation. [New York Times] An institutional buying surge apparently sparked by hopes of lower interest rates pushed stock prices sharply higher in very heavy trading. The Dow Jones industrial average surged 37.07 points, to 944.26, its second biggest daily gain in history. [New York Times] Washington cautioned Lebanon not to let its effort to re-establish order in Beirut lead to violations of human rights. A State Department spokesman said the United States, France and Italy, whose peacekeepers are in Beirut, had expressed concern that the Lebanese army's roundup of alleged criminials and undocumented residents not trample on civil liberties. [New York Times] Lebanese army troops extended their sweep of West Beirut to the southern suburbs, continuing a search for hidden weapons and a roundup of people for questioning. [New York Times] Spain's election campaign opened officially amid new uncertainty. Until last weekend, polls and politicians had agreed that the Socialist Party would finish first in the Oct. 28 voting. However, the arrest of three army colonels on charges of planning a coup on the eve of the election has introduced a new and potentially significant element in the campaign. [New York Times] A Latin American peace plan for the Nicaraguan-Honduran border dispute drew interest from President Reagan. In letters to the leaders of Mexico and Venezuela, Mr. Reagan expressed "great interest" in their "very constructive" proposal for a negotiated settlement of the dispute. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 944.26 (+37.07, +4.09%)
S&P Composite: 125.97 (+3.99, +3.27%)
Arms Index: 0.42

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,344	81.55
Declines	294	7.51
Unchanged	309	4.51
Total Volume		93.57

* 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*
October 5, 1982	907.19	121.98	69.77
October 4, 1982	903.61	121.51	55.65
October 1, 1982	907.74	121.97	65.00
September 30, 1982	896.25	120.42	62.61
September 29, 1982	906.27	121.63	62.54
September 28, 1982	919.33	123.24	65.90
September 27, 1982	920.90	123.62	44.83
September 24, 1982	919.52	123.32	54.59
September 23, 1982	925.77	123.81	68.24
September 22, 1982	927.61	123.99	113.09