News stories from Friday February 26, 1982

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

President Reagan changed his mind about a nomination to the Civil Rights Commission in response to protests from rights groups. An aide to Mr. Reagan said that the Rev. Sam Hart, a black minister from Philadelphia, had asked the White House to rescind his nomination following protests from civil rights organizations and the two Republican Senators from Pennsyvania. [New York Times] Legal arguments for tax exemptions to racially discriminatory private schools were presented by the Reagan administration to the Supreme Court. One of the three lawyers who signed the brief told the Court in a footnote that he disagreed with the administration's position and said that the administration had taken the opposite position in a brief he filed on its behalf in September. The Court had planned to take up a case involving the tax exemption issue at its closed conference Friday, according to lawyers, but was not expected to take any public action until Monday. [New York Times] Some compromise with the President on his 1983 budget request may be linked to an unavoidable vote in Congress this spring on the national debt ceiling limit, Republican congressional leaders believe. House and Senate leaders see the debt ceiling resolution as a means of curbing budget deficits by combining it with tax increases, cuts in military spending and perhaps a freeze or limitation on cost-of-living increases in Social Security, veterans pensions, Medicaid, Medicare and other benefits. [New York Times] Marijuana has adverse effects on behavior and the body, according to a long-awaited report by the National Academy of Sciences, but the report said that these effects were short-term and that reliable evidence was so scanty that it is impossible to draw any firm conclusions about the drug's potential long-term health hazards. Dr. Arnold Reiman, chairman of the special panel of health authorities that prepared the report, said that "what little we know for certain" is cause for serious national concern." [New York Times] Revamping of F.H.A. operations has been recommended by President Reagan's Commission on Housing. The 30-member advisory panel said that the Federal Housing Administration should turn over much of its work to private mortgage insurance companies, and that the government generally should not compete with the private market in providing insurance for home mortgages. If the recommendation is put into effect, it would the leave the F.H.A. with responsibility for testing the value of new mortgage instruments and providing mortgage insurance for people who could not get it from private companies. [New York Times] The biggest TV contract in the history of show business is about to signed by the National Football League and the three major television networks, which last season had record pro football ratings for the telecasts of the league's games. The five-year contract's worth is estimated at up to $1.8 billion by sources involved in the negotiations. [New York Times] Danger of savings bank failures in New York City was indicated by a record loss of $337 million by New York City's savings banks in the fourth quarter of 1981, bringing the total loss for the year to $1 billion, the state Banking Department reported. The prospect of failures is expected to exert considerable pressure on the Reagan administration and on Congress to adopt measures to help the beleaguered thrift institutions. [New York Times] Endorsement of Bruce Caputo as a candidate for the Senate was "suspended" by Republican and Conservative Party leaders as a result of disclosures that he had inaccurately described his military record. The move was intended to pressure Mr. Caputo, a Westchester County Republican, to quit the race voluntarily and to encourage other prospective candidates to come forward. [New York Times] A mummified insect has been found with some of its soft tissues intact after 40 million years, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley reported. They said the specimen is so remarkably well preserved that elements within cells appear to be visible. One scientist hopes to extract some intact genetic material from the specimen with the hope that it can be replicated. [New York Times] No decision on arms for Jordan will be made by the Reagan administration before the congressional elections in November, congressional and administration sources said, although administration officials have told members of Congress informally that they are favorably disposed to a sale. The sources said the official reason for the delay in any decision was that Jordan was not expected to make a formal request for either the F-I6 fighter planes or the mobile anti-aircraft Hawk missiles until later in the year. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 824.39 (-1.43, -0.17%)
S&P Composite: 113.11 (-0.10, -0.09%)
Arms Index: 1.06

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	638	16.06
Declines	818	21.81
Unchanged	416	5.97
Total Volume		43.84

* 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*
February 25, 1982	825.82	113.21	54.15
February 24, 1982	826.77	113.47	64.80
February 23, 1982	812.98	111.51	60.20
February 22, 1982	811.26	111.59	58.31
February 19, 1982	824.30	113.22	51.34
February 18, 1982	828.96	113.82	60.80
February 17, 1982	827.63	113.69	47.65
February 16, 1982	831.34	114.06	48.88
February 12, 1982	833.81	114.38	37.08
February 11, 1982	834.67	114.43	46.62