News stories from Tuesday January 24, 1978

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

With a nuclear reactor aboard, a crippled Soviet satellite re-entered the earth's atmosphere and disintegrated over a lightly populated area of northwestern Canada. The incident occurred 12 days after the United States and the Soviet Union began a secret cooperative effort designed to minimize possible radioactive contamination and avert public panic. Intelligence sources in Washington said that the craft was the type the Russians have used for 10 years to spy on movements of the United States fleet. The United States was aware of the danger Dec. 19, but kept it secret to avoid creating a public panic. [New York Times] Saudi Arabia plans to increase oil productive capacity modestly until the early 1980's and is not now planning further increases to meet possibly increasing world demand, according to Secretary of Energy James Schlesinger. He said that the Saudis, who are the world's largest oil exporters, should be able to produce about 12 million barrels a day by about 1983 or 1984, compared with about 10 million barrels at present. [New York Times] G. William Miller, President Carter's nominee as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, showed at a Senate confirmation hearing that he would probably adjust monetary policies to the administration's fiscal policies more than departing chairman Arthur Burns did. Mr. Miller spent a grueling day seeking to prove to a committee why he, as chairman of Textron Inc., a large corporation, should be the chief manager of the nation's money supply. [New York Times] Stock prices moved narrowly amid a barrage of fourth-quarter earnings reports. Popular indicators showed only minimal changes, and the Dow Jones industrial average edged higher by 0.87 points to close at 771.57. [New York Times] One of the most secret activities of the federal government would be exposed to some judicial light under legislation pending in Congress. The activities involve the electronic surveillance of persons in the United States who are suspected of being involved in intelligence activities for a foreign power. The controversial legislation grew out of disclosures in 1975 and 1976 of widespread investigative abuses by the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. in the name of national security. [New York Times] Rules for what intelligence agencies may or may not do under law are codified in an executive order signed by President Carter that is aimed at reorganizing the nation's foreign intelligence activities. Mr. Carter and others called the planned order unprecedented in its openness. Most of the proposed code is expected to gain congressional approval after hearings. [New York Times] A new approach to helping the poor has been proposed by Joseph Califano, the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. In a memorandum to President Carter, Mr. Califano wrote that the administration was placing too much emphasis on aiding the nation's cities, adding, "We should place our primary emphasis on people in distress rather than places in distress." He suggested that programs be devised for the special needs of specific communities, that an office be set up in the White House to coordinate all federal programs that aid the poor and that "substantial" new funds be made available. [New York Times] Egypt's press has been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on an increasingly personal basis, but seems more kindly disposed toward average Israelis than before President Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel two months ago. [New York Times] A computer has been devised that permits a Chinese-speaking operator to communicate directly with it in Chinese. The achievement, regarded as one of the neatest feats of gadgetry of the decade, was the work of Robert Sloss and Peter Nancarrow, two Cambridge University inventors. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 771.57 (+0.87, +0.11%)
S&P Composite: 89.25 (+0.01, +0.01%)
Arms Index: 0.95

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	678	7.63
Declines	695	7.45
Unchanged	492	3.61
Total Volume		18.69

* 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 23, 1978	770.70	89.24	19.38
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