News stories from Thursday March 22, 1979

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

The start of a national health plan that would initially cost from $10 billion to $15 billion, beginning in 1983, will be requested in Congress by President Carter within a few months, Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, announced. He said that the program would call for "significant improvements" in health care benefits for the aged and the poor, persons with inadequate health insurance and those faced with catastrophic costs of major illness. [New York Times] Cities' use of tax-exempt bonds to finance low-cost mortgages for middle-class families threatens the federal Treasury to such an extent that the Carter administration warned it was considering strong measures to limit the trend. [New York Times] The new chief of the G.S.A. will be Rear Adm. Rowland Freeman, according to White House officials. They said President Carter would soon announce that the management specialist would head the scandal-plagued General Services Administration. [New York Times] Major regulatory revision will be proposed by President Carter in a statement in the next few days that will urge legislation to streamline the process, administration officials said. The proposed legislation is expected to seek improved coordination, fewer procedural delays and increased study of less costly alternatives to proposed new rules. [New York Times] President Carter took part in 1976 talks and correspondence about financial aspects of his family's peanut business that are now being investigated, according to bank records and interviews with persons who say they were present at the discussions. [New York Times] Energy policies have aroused New Englanders against the Carter administration. Two Democratic Senators threatened to oppose President Carter in their states' early primaries next year if his approach to energy does not shift to recognize the region's problems and to put more emphasis on alternative energy sources. [New York Times] A 1957 espionage charge was dropped. The Justice Department had charged Alfred and Martha Dodd Stern with conspiracy to spy for Moscow. The well-known couple, active in leftist causes, fled to Eastern Europe before their indictment and have been living for many years in Prague. In dismissing the charges, the department said "there is no evidence remaining to make out a prima facie case" against the couple, who are expected to return to this country. [New York Times] Fort Dix faces major losses. After a meeting with top Pentagon officials, Governor Byrne said he doubted that an Army recommendation to transfer all basic training operations from the New Jersey base to Fort Jackson, S.C., would be reversed. Officials said central Jersey would lose 3,300 civilian and 1,200 military jobs. [New York Times] U.S. surveillance flights over the Sinai will be continued for three years to verify Egyptian and Israeli compliance with their peace treaty, Carter administration officials said. The flights were begun on a secret basis in January 1974 at the request of Egypt and Israel and were mentioned publicly for the first time in the just-approved first annex of the peace pact.Final details of a U.S.-Israeli accord will be negotiated by Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan in Washington. He said that the agreement would spell out measures the United States would take in the event Egypt violated terms of its peace treaty with Israel. [New York Times] Rebel forces in Afghanistan are mounting the first major challenge to the pro-Soviet government since it seized power 11 months ago, Washington officials said. There were reports of widespread clashes led by Moslem and tribal dissidents. [New York Times] A British Ambassador was slain by two gunmen outside his home in The Hague. A Dutch servant was also killed and the assassins escaped. The Dutch authorities, who said they had no clues, speculated that because of the precision of the attack the gunmen might be extremists seeking British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. [New York Times] An uneasy truce prevailed in Kurdistan as rebellious Kurdish tribesmen met with an Iranian delegation in Sanandaj, where there have been four days of fighting. Government sources said a cease-fire had been arranged. [New York Times] President John Vorster rebutted charges that as Prime Minister of South Africa he approved secret plans in which money was used "irregularly." But he did not specifically deny that some of the money was used to bribe leading figures in the United States and elsewhere to express pro-South African viewpoints. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 861.31 (+3.55, +0.41%)
S&P Composite: 101.67 (+0.42, +0.41%)
Arms Index: 0.68

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	928	21.32
Declines	508	7.89
Unchanged	452	5.17
Total Volume		34.38

* 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*
March 21, 1979	857.76	101.25	31.12
March 20, 1979	850.31	100.50	27.18
March 19, 1979	857.59	101.06	34.62
March 16, 1979	852.82	100.69	31.77
March 15, 1979	847.02	99.86	29.37
March 14, 1979	845.37	99.71	24.65
March 13, 1979	846.93	99.84	31.17
March 12, 1979	844.68	99.67	25.75
March 9, 1979	842.86	99.54	33.41
March 8, 1979	844.85	99.58	32.00