News stories from Wednesday March 21, 1979

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

Israel's Parliament endorsed overwhelmingly the peace treaty with Egypt, clearing the way for signing ceremonies in Washington on Monday. A 95 to 18 vote followed a marathon debate. Despite the strong approval, many legislators expressed reluctant support for the pact and deep reservations over the plan of future negotiations for a broader peace settlement in the Middle East.An American-Israeli accord is expected to be signed in the next few days that would provide support from Washington in the event the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty is violated, according to officials of both sides. [New York Times] Jobless benefits to strikers were upheld by the Supreme Court. In a 6 to 3 decision, the Court sustained a New York state law providing such benefits and a lower court's ruling that although the law placed the state on the side of labor during a prolonged strike, Congress has allowed states to determine such policies. [New York Times] Opposition to curbing wage gains while corporate profits are soaring was expressed by Frank Fitzsimmons, head of the Teamsters union, whose contract talks with the trucking industry are in a critical stage. A government announcement Tuesday that profits rose sharply in 1978 indicated a threat to President Carter's anti-inflation program. [New York Times] Paul Curran rebutted skepticism over the extent of his authority to investigate loans of $7 million made to President Carter's family peanut business by a bank once headed by Bert Lance. Mr. Curran, a New York Republican appointed as a special counsel, said he was confident he had sufficient power to conduct the inquiry. [New York Times] The blocking of access to secret files has been protested by the General Accounting Office. It accused Attorney General Griffin Bell and Adm. Stansfield Turner, the Director of Central Intelligence, of barring congressional investigators from looking into secret intelligence files without legal authority. The investigators had sought to examine classified data about 200 pounds of uranium that disappeared nearly 15 years ago. [New York Times] Footprints of two creatures who appeared to have walked exactly like human beings have been found by Dr. Mary Leakey in a layer of volcanic ash that blanketed part of Tanzania more than 3.6 million years ago. The footprints, the oldest known mark of human-like creatures on earth, are said to confirm that human ancestors walked with a two-legged gait 1.5 million years before the earliest known appearance of tool making. [New York Times] To fight housing discrimination, the Carter administration told Congress it needed broad new powers to enforce present federal laws. The issue may become the major civil rights battle of 1979. Conservative Senators said that such powers might give oppressive new authority to government agencies, infringe on private property rights and generate frivolous lawsuits. [New York Times] A unique regional experiment involving a two-tiered government reorganization has been begun in Portland, Ore. A new, popularly elected regional government that embraces parts of three counties has the power to carry out such controversial programs as scattering low-income housing. [New York Times] Refusal to hire former heroin addicts who are enrolled in methadone maintenance programs was upheld by the Supreme Court. In a 6 to 3 decision, the Court ruled that the policy practiced by the New York City Transit Authority did not violate a former addict's constitutional rights or constitute illegal racial discrimination. [New York Times] South Africa's bribery scandal widened as Eschel Rhoodie, the central figure, declared in an interview that the United States was one of the main countries where his government paid "opinion formers and decision makers" to express pro-South African views. He gave no names. [New York Times] Iranians began to celebrate their traditional New Year, despite the chaos in the economy. It is a time of welcome respite from the strikes, demonstrations and street fighting that brought down the Shah and the troubles of the new revolutionary era. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 857.76 (+7.45, +0.88%)
S&P Composite: 101.25 (+0.75, +0.75%)
Arms Index: 0.51

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	893	20.66
Declines	540	6.37
Unchanged	439	4.09
Total Volume		31.12

* 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 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
March 7, 1979	834.29	98.44	28.94