For the first time in more than a year, there has been a decline in the monthly tally of Nasdaq shares sold short and not yet covered.

The weekly report generally draws less reaction than the monthly tally, which is due next Friday.

The monthly tally of death sentences has become a kind of grim score card showing how each province is doing.

As a sideline, Challenger in the 1990's began tracking layoff announcements and issuing grim monthly tallies.

But none have been counted as manufacturing workers in the Labor Department's monthly tallies of employed people.

Nonetheless, many private analysts pointed to disquieting elements of weakness in the monthly tally that might lead to the economy's stalling in the months ahead.

In less than a year, the monthly tally soared to 1,100.

The monthly tally of at least 31 deaths in March was the second lowest since the invasion of Iraq three years ago.

Another tidbit published today, the Conference Board's monthly tally of help-wanted advertising, also showed no trend.

Lieutenant Chimento said August homicide figures, the latest official monthly tally, indicated that the 1981 record would almost surely fall.