News stories from Monday December 27, 1982

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

A retrenchment at Bethlehem Steel was announced. Bethelhem, the nation's second-largest steel company, announced two actions that will eliminate nearly 10,000 jobs and reduce its steelmaking capacity by 15 percent in the next year. Analysts said the moves would lead to a $750 million to $850 million write-off in the fourth quarter that could bring Bethlehem Steel's operating loss in the quarter to $1 billion. [New York Times] Deregulation of wilderness areas is being pressed by the Interior Department, which said it would eliminate hundreds of thousands of acres it now manages as potential wilderness areas. Most are in the West and Southwest. The department also said it would reevaluate millions of other acres to determine whether they should also be eliminated from consideration as wilderness areas. [New York Times] The surge in new home sales is being led in many communities by professional and white-collar couples in their late 20's and early 30's, according to home buyers, sellers, lenders and brokers. These buyers have relatively high combined income and have been waiting for interest rates to go down. [New York Times] One of the biggest lobbying efforts in years will occur in the battle over Social Security. The conflict pits the elderly and labor unions against small business leaders, and lobbyists for both sides have begun to mobilize for the struggle to shape the future of the federal pension program. [New York Times] John Lehman said that his ties with the Abington Corporation, the consulting concern he operated before he became Secretary of the Navy, did not constitute a conflict of interest. At a news conference, Mr. Lehman also said that his sale of the right to use the corporation's name in business overseas did not include an option to buy the foreign business operation from a British peer when Mr. Lehman returns to private life. [New York Times] The benefits of fever have been documented by recent research. The notion of fever as beneficial originated in ancient Greece and persisted for more than 2,000 years. Then, in the mid-1800's, aspirin compounds that rapidly reduced fevers became available and the medical view of fever changed abruptly. Now, many doctors say that fever-reducing drugs should be taken with discretion. [New York Times] Yuri Andropov is the first leader of the Soviet Union since Lenin to have lived abroad. Mr. Andropov served in the Soviet Embassy in Budapest from 1953 to 1957, at the time of the Hungarian uprising. Some Hungarians recall him as a shrewd, calculating official. [New York Times] The Kremlin declared an amnesty for convicts to mark the 60th anniversary of the formal merger of republics into the Soviet Union, but the wording of the decree indicated that it excluded those convicted of political offenses and a wide variety of other crimes considered serious. [New York Times] A chill in American-Rumanian links may occur soon, according to Reagan administration officials. They said that the administration planned to send a high-ranking official to Bucharest next month to warn Rumania against imposing a scheduled tax on prospective emigrants worth the total cost of their education. [New York Times] Peking criticized Moscow on the third anniversary of its intervention in Afghanistan. An editorial urged other countries to provide more support, including "material assistance," to the Afghan insurgents to bring about a Soviet withdrawal. [New York Times] Attorneys for senior Israeli officials began cross-examining middle-ranking army officers in public hearings in Jerusalem. The lawyers sought to put the witnesses' credibility into question before the state commission investigating the killings of Palestinian civilians in Beirut. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1070.55 (+25.48, +2.44%)
S&P Composite: 142.18 (+2.46, +1.76%)
Arms Index: 0.48

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,053	47.74
Declines	535	11.67
Unchanged	364	5.28
Total Volume		64.69

* 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 23, 1982	1045.07	139.72	62.88
December 22, 1982	1035.04	138.83	83.46
December 21, 1982	1030.26	138.61	78.01
December 20, 1982	1004.51	136.26	62.20
December 17, 1982	1011.50	137.49	76.01
December 16, 1982	990.25	135.30	73.69
December 15, 1982	992.64	135.24	81.05
December 14, 1982	1009.38	137.39	98.38
December 13, 1982	1024.28	139.95	63.13
December 10, 1982	1018.76	139.57	86.43