News stories from Wednesday April 19, 1978

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

Economic growth halted temporarily in the first quarter, mainly because of bad weather and the coal strike, but activity was picking up again as the second quarter began, the government reported. Commerce Department data on the output of goods and services showed a 0.6 percent drop in the January-March quarter, the first decline in three years. [New York Times] France pledged to freeze all taxes for two years, phase out price controls and seek a pact with leftist trade unions to restrain wage increases. The commitments were made by the newly re-elected conservative government, which stressed that international factors made it difficult to stimulate the economy and cut unemployment. [New York Times] Stock prices recovered modestly after Tuesday's setback that followed a dramatic three-day record buying spree. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 4.77 points to 808.04. [New York Times] President Carter was warned by Senate leaders against moving too fast on strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union despite his success in gaining Senate approval of the Panama Canal treaties. The cautionary comments were made to reporters by Senator Robert Byrd, the majority leader; Senator Howard Baker Jr., the minority leader, and Senator Alan Cranston, assistant Democratic chief. [New York Times] Airlines would have the most freedom in 40 years to lower fares under a bill approved in the Senate by an unexpectedly wide vote of 83 to 9. Similar legislation is being written in the House, but is not close to floor action. The Senate measure would reduce the powers of the Civil Aeronautics Board to block entry of new carriers into he industry and permit airlines to lower fares with minimum interference by the board. [New York Times] War-game techniques have long been used by governments to shape military and national policy. But in recent decades, with the advent of computers, the techniques have been refined, spread from the Pentagon and adapted for use in many fields, including industry, science, sociology, economics and politics. Specialists say that war-gaming tools have come into their own and are enjoying a surge of popularity as a pastime for amateurs throughout the country. [New York Times] Clergymen may be candidates for public office, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in overturning as unconstitutional the last such state prohibition. The Court invalidated a 182-year-old provision of the Tennessee Constitution that barred clerics from serving in the legislature because they "ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions." [New York Times] Seeking gains toward an arms accord, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance arrived in Moscow for talks with Soviet leaders. Mr. Vance will try to narrow Soviet-American differences over limiting strategic weapons and to improve overall relations in advance of a possible visit to Washington later this year by Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader. The visit marks the highest-level Soviet-American negotiations in seven months. [New York Times] Improving tactical nuclear weapons in Europe and keeping open the option of introducing neutron warheads, if Washington decides to produce them, were objectives pledged by the Nuclear Planning Group of the North Atlantic defense alliance. The group, after meeting in Denmark, said that the ultimate decision on the neutron warhead would be influenced by "the degree" of Soviet restraint in its arms programs and its deployment of forces affecting NATO security. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 808.04 (+4.77, +0.59%)
S&P Composite: 93.86 (+0.43, +0.46%)
Arms Index: 0.61

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	878	21.24
Declines	623	9.19
Unchanged	427	4.63
Total Volume		35.06

* 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*
April 18, 1978	803.27	93.43	38.97
April 17, 1978	810.12	94.45	63.49
April 14, 1978	795.13	92.92	52.28
April 13, 1978	775.21	90.98	31.58
April 12, 1978	766.29	90.11	26.22
April 11, 1978	770.18	90.25	24.30
April 10, 1978	773.65	90.49	25.74
April 7, 1978	769.58	90.17	25.17
April 6, 1978	763.95	89.79	27.36
April 5, 1978	763.08	89.64	27.26