News stories from Thursday November 16, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The House assassinations inquiry is expected to conclude that James Earl Ray killed the Rev. Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. for $50,000 that he never collected from a right-wing St. Louis businessman. The committee is also expected to decide that the F.B.I. snarled the case, apparently ignoring a possible conspiracy and concentrating on seizing a fugitive, and that, in the process, evidence was lost, key figures were not interviewed and data were disregarded or hidden. [New York Times]
- The new House would cooperate with President Carter's efforts to trim the federal budget and fight inflation unless a recession occurred next year, House Speaker Tip O'Neill predicted. He said he was confident that there would be no recession, despite higher interest rates, but added that a marked rise in unemployment would lead the Democratic majority to seek to spur the economy. [New York Times]
- Links between cancer and estrogen pills were doubted by Yale researchers who said that earlier studies connecting the two were based on inaccurate research with a built-in bias toward finding uterine cancer. The researchers also said that faulty research techniques may also have caused erroneous findings in studies that reported a relationship between birth control pills and breast cancer. [New York Times]
- Newspaper ethics and state law have clashed in Minnesota, where the Duluth Herald and News Tribune dismissed an editor for running for office, accusing her of a conflict of interest. As a result the paper and top executives have been indicted under a law that makes it illegal to pay anyone to run -- or not to run -- for office. [New York Times]
- Egypt Informed the United States and Israel of its latest views on linking the projected Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty to the future of Palestinians in the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza Strip. The acting head of Israel's negotiators, Ezer Weizman, told reporters Cairo's plans provided "no reason for pessimism," adding "I hope and believe they should not be stumbling blocks." [New York Times]
- Downgrading of Mao Tse-tung was pressed by China in a major campaign also aimed at undermining the power of officials associated with him. A Peking newspaper declared that a celebrated essay the late leader used to open the Cultural Revolution was counter-revolutionary. [New York Times]
- Vietnamese "boat people" refused an offer to allow their ship to be resupplied because of a Malaysian ultimatum. Malaysia said it would resupply their decrepit freighter, which is critically short of water and medicine, only if the more than 25,000 Vietnamese refugees aboard accepted a Malaysian refusal to grant them temporary asylum and leave its waters.
Vietnamese refugees now In Malaysia face an uncertain future. More than 16,000 live in small shacks and tents in a vast shantytown on an island. Water is severely limited, the stench of human waste fills the air and refugees sit silently or walk aimlessly.
[New York Times] - Black rule In Rhodesia was put off for about four months, from Dec. 31 to next April, by the biracial transition government. It announced that the extra time was needed to complete work on a new Constitution. The transition program was said to be at least two months behind schedule. [New York Times]
- The two Germanys agreed on a pact. Bonn will pay East Germany more than $3 billion over 10 years under a traffic accord designed to improve the lot of West Berlin and to gain long-term stability in relations between the two nations. The largest project will be a highway linking Berlin and Hamburg, Germany's two largest cities. [New York Times]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 794.18 (+8.58, +1.09%)
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* |
| November 15, 1978 | 785.60 | 92.71 | 26.28 |
| November 14, 1978 | 785.26 | 92.49 | 30.62 |
| November 13, 1978 | 792.01 | 93.13 | 20.96 |
| November 10, 1978 | 807.09 | 94.77 | 16.75 |
| November 9, 1978 | 803.97 | 94.42 | 23.33 |
| November 8, 1978 | 807.61 | 94.45 | 23.56 |
| November 7, 1978 | 800.07 | 93.85 | 25.32 |
| November 6, 1978 | 814.88 | 95.19 | 20.45 |
| November 3, 1978 | 823.11 | 96.18 | 25.99 |
| November 2, 1978 | 816.96 | 95.61 | 41.03 |