News stories from Friday December 7, 1979

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

The leader of the Azerbaijani minority in Iran appeared to be resisting pressure from the revolutionary authorities to order his followers to give up the government buildings and radio and television station in Tabriz that they seized to protest Iran's new constitution. For the first time, Ayatollah Kazem Shariat-Madari expressed approval of the Azerbaijani demands for regional autonomy. [New York Times] Trade with Iran would be cut off if any of the American hostages in Teheran are put on trial, President Carter said at a State Department meeting with the families of the hostages. [New York Times] The Shah's nephew was killed by a gunman on a Paris street. Mustapha Chafik, a 34-year-old former Iranian naval officer, was shot twice at close range. The assassin escaped. Mr. Chafik's mother is Princess Ashraf, the Shah's twin sister, who survived an assassination attempt in Cannes in September 1977. [New York Times] Joseph Hendrie was dismissed as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by President Carter, who announced several changes in federal regulations that he said would improve the safety of nuclear power plants. Mr. Carter said that the United States "cannot shut the door on nuclear energy" and urged the commission to end its suspension of licenses for new reactors as soon as possible and "in any event not later than six months from today." [New York Times] Employment increased last month despite layoffs in the automobile and steel industries and indications of a sluggish economy. The Labor Department reported an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent in November, two-tenths of a percentage point below October's rate. There has been no sharp change in the jobless rate for almost a year. "We are not in a recession," according to Dr. Janet Norwood, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics. She said that the labor market data indicated that the economy had slowed down, but was not in the recession that many economists had predicted for 1979. [New York Times] Illinois advanced $37.2 million to Chicago's insolvent Board of Education that will enable the board to pay its 50,000 employees on time. The state tentatively agreed to buy about $200 million in school obligation notes to be sold in a complex bailout arrangement. [New York Times] Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti announced that he had removed himself from any role in the government's investigation of allegations of White House influence buying on behalf of Robert Vesco, the fugitive financier. Mr. Civiletti said he was stepping aside because of his part in the administration's decision in 1977 to abandon efforts to extradite Mr. Vesco in favor of using diplomatic channels to have him returned to the United States. [New York Times] A cut in the Social Security payroll tax was recommended by the 1979 Advisory Council on Social Security, which also proposed that Medicare insurance be financed by individual and corporate income taxes. Guaranteed retirement benefits to keep people who have worked most of their lives out of poverty was also recommended by the council. [New York Times] Cost estimates were raised again for the Northeast Corridor railroad improvement project. The project was initiated in 1976 and was to have been completed in five years. Raising its cost estimate for the second time this year, the Department of Transportation said the project would now cost $2.5 billion, $750 million more than had been estimated earlier, and it extended the completion date to 1984. [New York Times] A Concorde jet barely missed colliding with Air Force F-15 fighters flying in a loose formation off the New Jersey coast five weeks ago. The Air France supersonic plane was within 10 feet of a collision. The Air Force took responsibility for the incident, explaining that "radar controllers did not provide adequate traffic information to the F-15 formation commander, who inadvertently allowed his flight to deviate from his assigned altitude." [New York Times] Ireland picked a new Prime Minister. He is Charles Haughey, who was elected leader of the governing Fianna Fail, defeating his only rival, George Colley, in a 44 to 38 vote. He will take office next week. John Lynch will formally resign as Prime Minister on Tuesday. Mr. Haughey, who stood trial nine years ago on charges of supplying guns to the Irish Republican Army, said at a news conference that "I condemn the Irish Republican Army and all of their activities." [New York Times] Fragments of papyrus rolls found in a cave eight miles north of Jericho have been identified by a Harvard professor as the oldest legal documents known to have originated in ancient Palestine. Frank Cross, professor of Semitic languages, reassembled the sheets of papyrus. [New York Times] Lord Soames was appointed Governor of Zimbabwe Rhodesia by Queen Elizabeth II. Lord Soames, Sir Winston Churchill's son-in-law, has been the Conservative Party leader in the House of Lords. He will leave for Salisbury next week. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 833.19 (-1.88, -0.23%)
S&P Composite: 107.52 (-0.48, -0.44%)
Arms Index: 1.39

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	853	17.39
Declines	685	19.43
Unchanged	394	5.55
Total Volume		42.37

* 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*
December 6, 1979	835.07	108.00	37.51
December 5, 1979	828.41	107.25	39.33
December 4, 1979	824.91	106.79	33.53
December 3, 1979	819.62	105.83	29.03
November 30, 1979	822.35	106.16	30.48
November 29, 1979	831.74	106.81	33.56
November 28, 1979	830.46	106.77	39.69
November 27, 1979	825.85	106.38	45.14
November 26, 1979	828.75	106.80	47.94
November 23, 1979	811.77	104.67	23.30