News stories from Thursday July 7, 1977

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

The federal inquiry into the disappearance of James Hoffa nearly two years ago has collapsed, officials close to the case said. The United States Attorney in Detroit, Philip Van Dam, said, "There's nothing left to do," but a Justice Department spokesman said the search for the former president of the Teamsters union still had priority and was "by no means" closed. [New York Times] Howard Hughes's liquid assets cash account was depleted by about $600 million in the last 10 years of his life, according to documents filed in a Delaware court. Discovery that nearly half that amount had apparently not been reinvested but had been dissipated was one of the main reasons for the recent changes in the board of directors of Summa, the Hughes holding company, by William Lummis, Mr. Hughes's nephew and Summa's chairman, an affidavit indicated. [New York Times] Five prisoners were killed and 71 others injured in a fire that swept through a locked, overcrowded cellblock at the federal medium-security prison in Danbury, Conn. Authorities said the fire was believed to have been set deliberately. [New York Times] Its 13-month-old "temporary" ban on Concorde landings in New York was extended indefinitely by the Port Authority in spite of pressure from a federal appeals court to fix the plane's noise standards "with dispatch." Thus, the issue remains where it has been for months, in the courts, Another court hearing is scheduled next week. [New York Times] Retail sales showed signs of erosion in June. The report from 15 of the country's largest chain stores would have been better if apparel sales, both men's and women's, had not declined. Durable goods, especially appliances and furniture, held up well. Six of the 15 companies had increases in June that were below the total gain of the preceding five months. [New York Times] Rising energy issues and a show of recovery in blue-chip issues helped a general upward movement in stock prices. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.78 points to 909.51. The utility average also moved ahead. [New York Times] Fundamental changes in traditional means of communication are forcing the federal government to make policy decisions that could alter the fortunes of the nation's largest communications organizations and the lives of Americans. The government must deal with such issues as the competing rights of large corporations, the possible demise of the Postal Service, the use of the air waves by individual nations and the personal privacy. [New York Times] The United States and the Soviet Union are roughly in strategic balance, according to the Carter administration's first comprehensive study of the global power relationships. Future trends, the study has found, are more favorable than had been anticipated by the Ford administration. The study concluded, highly placed sources said, that the Soviet buildup in strategic arms was being effectively offset by measures taken by the United States and its allies. [New York Times] Britain and Guatemala confronted each other in Central America and in Washington in the continuing dispute over the British territory of Belize, but by evening their latest crisis appeared to have dissolved into an amicable Washington cocktail party. Two days of negotiations produced a joint communique pledging that everyone concerned would calm down. [New York Times] The American Jewish Committee is closing the office it had maintained for 29 years in Buenos Aires because of anti-Semitic and anti-American threats against its chief representative and his family. The committee's representative. Jacobo Kovadloff, whose family had lived in Argentina for five generations, had already left Argentina with his wife and children for the United States. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 909.51 (+1.78, +0.20%)
S&P Composite: 99.93 (+0.35, +0.35%)
Arms Index: 0.68

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	795	11.55
Declines	604	5.99
Unchanged	489	4.20
Total Volume		21.74

* 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*
July 6, 1977	907.73	99.58	21.23
July 5, 1977	913.59	100.09	16.85
July 1, 1977	912.65	100.10	18.16
June 30, 1977	916.30	100.48	19.41
June 29, 1977	913.33	100.11	19.00
June 28, 1977	915.62	100.14	22.67
June 27, 1977	924.10	100.98	19.87
June 24, 1977	929.70	101.19	26.49
June 23, 1977	925.37	100.62	24.33
June 22, 1977	926.31	100.46	25.07