News stories from Friday March 7, 1980

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

Custody of the hostages in Teheran will be given Saturday to Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, the Iranian government announced. The announcement followed a statement from the Islamic militants setting new conditions for relinquishing control of the Americans. Apparently hoping to stir up public opposition to the transfer of the Americans to the governing Revolutionary Council, the militants demanded that they be allowed to put their case to the Iranian people on television and radio. [New York Times] The impasse in Bogota continued. Another session of negotiations between the Colombian government and a representative of the guerrillas holding diplomats hostage in the Dominican Republic Embassy ended without an indication that settlement of the guerrillas' demands was near. [New York Times] Inflation soared at a near record level in February, as measured by the government's Producer Price Index, and increased the political and economic pressure on the administration to take action. The 1.5 percent increase, following a 1.6 percent rise in January, was caused in part by the largest energy price increases in nearly six years. Unemployment declined slightly in February to 6 percent from 6.2 percent in January, and total employment last month increased by 149,000, the Labor Department reported. [New York Times] Republican Presidential hopefuls will be pitted against each other tomorrow in the South's first contest of 1980 in South Carolina. Though most state politicians expect Ronald Reagan to win, John Connally, who was also campaigning there along with George Bush, predicted victory for himself. [New York Times] Recall of two million tires has been ordered for the Uniroyal Tire Company because the government has found that the steel-belted radials might be dangerous. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the recall, saying that a large number of the Uniroyal tires had tread and belt separations.Traffic deaths exceeded 50,000 nationwide in 1979 for the second consecutive year, after a four-year decline following the 1973 gasoline shortage, according to official figures. Some highway safety experts attribute the increasing deaths to the growing number of small cars, which they say are not as safe as larger cars on a highway system designed for big cars. [New York Times] Government responsibility for cancer among people living downwind from nuclear weapons test sites in Nevada is being urged by a White House study group report, a Utah newspaper said. The report, submitted to President Carter on Feb. 1, said that "a small number of cases of death or disease" probably resulted from nuclear weapons testing in Nevada, according to The Deseret News. [New York Times] Ian Smith offered to serve in the cabinet being formed by Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister-elect of Rhodesia, who completed negotiations on the formation of a coalition government with Joshua Nkomo, co-leader of the guerrilla alliance. Although Mr. Mu-gabe has said that whites would be invited to join his cabinet, the inclusion of former Prime Minister Smith was thought to be improbable. [New York Times] Further anti-Soviet demonstrations in Kabul apparently are anticipated by the Soviet-supported regime of President Babrak Karmal of Afghanistan. Soviet troops reappeared on the streets of the capital and Soviet fighter jets and helicopter gunships flew over the city. [New York Times] Syrian troops pulled out of the Christian suburbs of Beirut and gave their positions to units of the Lebanese army without incident. Christian militias who had fought the Syrians earlier did not interfere. Lebanese soldiers were presented with flowers in the communities east of Beirut. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 820.56 (-7.51, -0.91%)
S&P Composite: 106.90 (-1.75, -1.61%)
Arms Index: 0.80

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	349	12.01
Declines	1,235	33.80
Unchanged	339	5.14
Total Volume		50.95

* 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 6, 1980	828.07	108.65	49.61
March 5, 1980	844.88	111.13	49.25
March 4, 1980	856.48	112.78	44.31
March 3, 1980	854.35	112.50	38.68
February 29, 1980	863.14	113.66	38.80
February 28, 1980	854.44	112.35	40.31
February 27, 1980	855.12	112.38	46.43
February 26, 1980	864.25	113.98	40.04
February 25, 1980	859.81	113.33	39.14
February 22, 1980	868.77	115.04	48.21