News stories from Wednesday December 8, 1982

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

The MX missile was kept alive in the House, but only in the development stage. By a voice vote, the representatives decided to retain $2.5 billion for research and development on the experimental missile. The House then adopted, by a vote of 346 to 68, a military appropriation bill of $230 billion in this fiscal year. [New York Times] The plan for closely spaced basing of the MX missile is opposed by three of the five military chiefs of staff, according to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. John Vessey. In Senate testimony, General Vessey said that the nation's military leaders regarded the Reagan administration's basing proposal as "very difficult to understand and difficult to explain" and that three wanted to delay action on it until "technical uncertainties" were resolved. [New York Times] A day-long standoff between the police and a man who threatened to blow up the Washington Monument unless the banning of nuclear arms was discussed nationwide ended with a volley of gunshots. Forty-five minutes after the firing began, the police removed a fatally wounded man from the truck that had been parked near the landmark for 10 hours. [New York Times] Floods that drove 35,000 people from their homes in the Mississippi Valley poured into other parts of the flood plain as the receding waters in some regions left entire towns mud-filled messes, with cars and debris piled against houses and trees. [New York Times] A compromise Social Security plan is said to be moving the 15-member commission that is seeking to reform the old-age benefits program closer to a bipartisan consensus. The plan, shaped by Alexander Trowbridge, a Democrat, calls for Congress to combine near-term increases in the payroll tax with some curtailment of cost-of-living increases in benefits, starting in 1983 or 1984. [New York Times] A comprehensive immigration bill similar to one passed by the Senate was cleared for debate on the House floor as Congress moved toward a scheduled adjournment at the end of next week. The main objective of the measure, which is strongly supported by the administration, is to control illegal immigration. [New York Times] Doctors altered drug treatment and diet in efforts to prevent Dr. Barney Clark from suffering further seizures as he neared the end of his first full week with an artificial heart. A hospital spokesman said that Dr. Clark had shown "gradual improvement in responsiveness" without evidence of brain damage. [New York Times] The activity of human genes has been altered for the first time in an attempt to treat a serious illness, according to scientists for the National Institutes of Health and the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Their report was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, which called the work a "major new step" in efforts to treat the hereditary bladder disorder called thallassemia. [New York Times] Prehistoric Indian drawings that may have been made three centuries before Columbus arrived in the New World have been found on the walls of a Tennessee cave, according to anthropologists. They declined to disclose the whereabouts of the cave because vandals or artifact hunters have already sawed through a protective gate to enter the cave, and they said that further break-ins could easily destroy the fragile artwork. [New York Times] The first commercial VHF-TV station in New Jersey was authorized by the Federal Communications Commission. The agency authorized RKO General Inc. to move its WOR-TV station on Channel 9 from New York City to Secaucus. [New York Times] A Civil Service test was discarded by New York City after officials learned that about 800 of the present 1,000 parks laborers had scored too low to keep their jobs. The officials said a review of the test had convinced them that it failed to measure qualifications for the job. [New York Times] Two Lebanese soldiers were killed near Beirut in a five-minute clash with an Israeli convoy, and an Israeli was wounded. Israel said an investigation showed that the incident had started accidentally, and both sides agreed that the incident did not reflect any deterioration of relations between the two armies. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1047.09 (-9.85, -0.93%)
S&P Composite: 141.81 (-0.91, -0.64%)
Arms Index: 1.28

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	796	37.25
Declines	826	49.66
Unchanged	341	10.52
Total Volume		97.43

* 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*
December 7, 1982	1056.94	142.72	111.62
December 6, 1982	1055.65	141.77	83.89
December 3, 1982	1031.36	138.69	71.57
December 2, 1982	1033.11	138.82	77.60
December 1, 1982	1031.09	138.72	107.84
November 30, 1982	1039.28	138.54	93.47
November 29, 1982	1002.85	134.20	61.07
November 26, 1982	1007.36	134.88	38.81
November 24, 1982	1000.00	133.88	67.15
November 23, 1982	990.99	132.93	72.92