News stories from Monday January 23, 1978

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

President Carter submitted to Congress a $500 billion budget for 1979 that emphasized the limits to what government can do to cure social problems. The $25 billion tax cut he proposed to Congress Saturday and the $60.6 billion deficit in his budget, Mr. Carter said, would keep the economy on a path of steady but moderate growth of just 5 percent a year. He hinted broadly that another tax cut would probably be needed in 1980 when he may be running for a second term. [New York Times] The Justice Department will examine the circumstances of the removal of David Marston as United States Attorney in Philadelphia, Acting Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti said. Mr. Marston and his supporters have said that Representative Joshua Eilberg, a Philadelphia Democrat, had self-serving motives in urging President Carter to dismiss Mr. Marston. [New York Times] Gov. James Hunt of North Carolina affirmed his belief in the guilt of the Wilmington 10, but reduced their sentences to make them eligible for parole over periods ranging from four months to two years. Early parole, which supporters of the 10 have said they would not accept, rather than a pardon, means that the Rev. Ben Chavis, who has already served nearly five years in prison, would not be eligible for parole until Jan. 1, 1980. [New York Times] Stock prices weakened in slow trading, reflecting investors' disappointment over President Carter's tax proposals and economic program. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 6.24 points to 770.70, its lowest level since April 9, 1975. [New York Times] The Soviet Union, the world's largest oil producer, is preparing to develop vast petroleum reserves in anticipation of a production decline of its largest and most accessible oilfields. The Russians will have to settle and build facilities in further uninhabited stretches of the western Siberian wilderness. Their success or failure in drilling new wells and building new housing, roads, railroads and pipelines quickly enough to prevent a cutoff of Soviet oil exports will almost certainly have great impact on the worldwide oil market in the next decade. [New York Times] The United States, the nine Common Market nations and Japan agreed on a July deadline for finally winding up the Tokyo round, the most ambitious trade-concession negotiations since World War II. The Tokyo talks have been virtually stagnant since they were initiated in 1973. The Carter administration also followed the governments of Western Europe and Japan in proposing an initial package of trade concessions, including an average cut of more than 40 percent in United States industrial tariffs over the next eight to 10 years. The reduction is offered in return for equivalent concessions from the trading partners. [New York Times] Prime Minister Menachem Begin told the Israeli Parliament that the Israeli military delegation would not return to Cairo for negotiations until the Egyptian press ceased its anti-Semitic campaign of "hatred and incitement to hatred against the Jewish people." He referred to an article in an Egyptian paper in which he was called "Shylock," saying that in such an atmosphere it would be "useless and humiliating for our delegation to go to Cairo." [New York Times] Major policy problems in the Middle East and in Congress face the Carter administration over the projected sale of large numbers of the most modern American aircraft to Saudi Arabia and Israel, administration officials said. If President Carter does not decide to alter plans in the next week or so, they said, the United States is about to announce formally the sale of $1.5 billion in aircraft to Saudi Arabia. The administration has tentatively agreed to sell Israel 150 additional fighter planes, and Egypt, which is seeking American arms as well, may receive a group of fighters. [New York Times] One of Europe's leading industrialists was kidnapped near his home on the Avenue Foch in Paris when his limousine was ambushed. Baron Edouard-Jean Empain, a 40-year-old Belgian, was seized by three or more armed men. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 770.70 (-6.24, -0.80%)
S&P Composite: 89.24 (-0.65, -0.72%)
Arms Index: 1.16

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	453	4.92
Declines	929	11.68
Unchanged	485	2.78
Total Volume		19.38

* 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*
January 20, 1978	776.94	89.89	7.58
January 19, 1978	778.67	90.09	21.50
January 18, 1978	786.30	90.56	21.39
January 17, 1978	779.02	89.88	19.36
January 16, 1978	771.74	89.43	18.76
January 13, 1978	775.73	89.69	18.01
January 12, 1978	778.15	89.82	22.73
January 11, 1978	775.90	89.74	22.88
January 10, 1978	781.53	90.17	25.18
January 9, 1978	784.56	90.64	27.90