News stories from Friday February 11, 1977

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

President Carter signaled his intention to pursue normal diplomatic relations with Vietnam with the announcement that he plans to send an American delegation there to discuss missing American military personnel and other issues. His plans were disclosed in an aide's report of his conversations with officials of the National League of Families, a group representing families of military men still listed as missing in action or presumed dead. According to sources in the White House and the State Department, it appeared that the President's proposal has received preliminary favor in Hanoi. [New York Times] The President flew home to Plains, Ga., for the weekend in a huge military aircraft that would be the nation's airborne command post in time of war. It was the first time that a President had flown in the plane, a military version of the Boeing 747. Mr. Carter had requested the demonstration flight. He was accompanied by a 15-member multi-service battle staff. [New York Times] President Carter made public details of a trust agreement that removes him, while he is President, from any control over the farmland and peanut warehouse business owned by him and his family in Georgia. The agreement specifically instructs Charles Kirbo, an Atlanta lawyer named as the trustee, to arrange the assets so that the trust's income will not be substantially affected by federal legislation, such as price supports for peanuts or other agricultural products. [New York Times] Government economic indicators gave a somewhat reassuring view of the nation's prospects following the recent spell of unusually cold weather. The Commerce Department said that consumer buying, with emphasis on automobiles and auto accessories, rose in the first week of February following a decline in January. Wholesale prices, according to the Labor Department, rose by an annual rate of 6 percent in January, roughly the same rate in the previous half year. [New York Times] Attorney General Griffin Bell ordered a federal grand jury inquiry into the 1975 shotgun slaying of 26-year-old Richard Morales by the former police chief of Castroville, Tex., a town near San Antonio. In issuing the order, Mr. Bell imposed stricter guidelines than did a Justice Department ruling, made in 1959, that had the affect of limiting the prosecution of persons who had been tried earlier for the same offense in state or local courts. A federal grand jury inquiry into the Morales case was merited, Mr. Bell said, by the serious allegations of abuse of authority by a law enforcement officer. [New York Times] Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, apparently reversing a stand he had taken during his senatorial campaign, indicated in a series of statements that he had strong doubts about continuing rent control in New York. He said that controls were "probably" a cause of housing abandonment and that Albany should consider the possibility of phasing them out. In his campaign he took a stand against abolishing controls on the ground that it would cause "immeasurable" dislocation and hardships. [New York Times] Stock prices declined sharply in slower trading, and the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 6.40 points to 931.52, its lowest close since Nov. 12. [New York Times] Rebel staff members of radio station WBAI-FM seized the station transmitter in the Empire State Building to prevent an imminent broadcasting shutdown in a dispute with the management of the listener-supported station. Apparently frustrated by staff proposals for a greater voice in programming, the management had issued instructions at noon to have the station silenced at about 2 P. M. "until further notice." Shortly before 7 P.M. the station finally went off the air. [New York Times] Reports reaching Hong Kong from Vietnam say that some former South Vietnamese military officers and civil servants who have been prisoners of the Communists are being transferred to re-education camps near Hanoi. The reported transfers are only one of a number of indications that the Communists are apparently still taking a harsh line toward the southern population. It is estimated that 50,000 to 200,000 people are confined to the re-education camps. [New York Times] Black Roman Catholic priests will be appointed to white parishes in South Africa. This was one of the major church reforms outlined in a 21-point "Declaration of Commitment" that underscored the church's opposition to the nation's policies of apartheid. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 931.52 (-6.40, -0.68%)
S&P Composite: 100.22 (-0.60, -0.60%)
Arms Index: 1.72

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	540	4.43
Declines	864	12.21
Unchanged	467	3.87
Total Volume		20.51

* 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 10, 1977	937.92	100.82	22.34
February 9, 1977	933.84	100.73	23.64
February 8, 1977	942.24	101.60	24.04
February 7, 1977	946.31	101.89	20.70
February 4, 1977	947.89	101.88	23.13
February 3, 1977	947.14	101.85	23.79
February 2, 1977	952.79	102.36	25.70
February 1, 1977	958.36	102.54	23.70
January 31, 1977	954.37	102.03	22.92
January 28, 1977	957.53	101.93	22.70