News stories from Friday November 11, 1977

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

Tax relief for individuals and businesses will have "first priority" in the tax bill that President Carter will submit to Congress in January, Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal said. He told the Senate Banking Committee that the tax bill will be "kept relatively simple to build confidence." It was apparent from his remarks that the administration was no longer pursuing the general tax reform it had proposed with the urgency it had discussed the issue for months. [New York Times] A 1979 budget deficit "in the neighborhood of $40 billion" is anticipated by Acting Budget Director James McIntyre. The figure might leave room for a substantial tax cut next year. Mr. McIntyre also said that the Office of Management and Budget had reduced spending estimates for the current fiscal year by $3.1 billion, to $459.8 billion. [New York Times] Longshoremen have received a proposal that might hasten the end of their 42-day-old strike that has tied up container shipping from Maine to Texas. Employers offered wage and benefit increases of $2.04 an hour in a three-year contract and a job security program, which had been one of the longshoremen's key demands. [New York Times] Clean water rules were eased by a House-Senate conference committee to give industry more time to install anti-pollution equipment. The committee also agreed to relax federal controls over the nation's environmentally delicate wetlands. Several environmental organizations oppose many of the actions taken by the conferees. "We view this as a step backward," said Larry Silverman of the Clean Water Action Project. [New York Times] The stock market's heaviest trading in more than a year and a half followed a Thursday session that was its best in more than a year. The buoyancy was apparently based on a belief among investors that the Federal Reserve would ease its credit tightening. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.34 points to 845.89 after advancing 14.12 points on Thursday. A $3.4 billion decline in the money supply led to the belief that the Reserve would ease interest rates. [New York Times] An offer to buy back from its 93,000 stockholders 1.5 million of the Communications Satellite Corporation's 10 million shares was voted by the company's directors. The debt-free company has been ordered by the Federal Communications Commission to establish a capital structure of 45 percent debt and 55 percent equity. The buyback offer was accompanied by the directors' option to buy back an additional 500,000 shares at $37 a share. Comsat stock closed at $36 today on the New York Stock Exchange. The offer expires at 5 P.M. Central standard time Dec. 6. [New York Times] Robert Mendelsohn's nomination as Assistant Secretary for Policy, Budget and Administration of the Department of the Interior was withdrawn by Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus, who said he was acting at Mr. Mendelsohn's request. The California Fair Political Practices Commission earlier in the day said that the question of Mr. Mendelsohn's involvement in campaign irregularities in 1974 should be decided in court in a civil suit. [New York Times] Southern Lebanon was bombed for the second time in three days by Israeli fighter-bombers and gunfire was exchanged by Israelis and Palestinians. The bombing was ordered, Israeli military spokesmen said, after rockets were fired from southern Lebanon at the northern Israeli village of Yiron. No one was hurt there. [New York Times] Friendship and cooperation were offered to the "citizens of Egypt" by Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel, who asked them to join his country in a silent oath of "no more wars, no more bloodshed and no more threats." He recorded a two-minute statement for Arabic programs prepared by Israeli radio and television stations for broadcast to neighboring countries. "We can help each other," the Prime Minister said. [New York Times] South Africa placed special controls on domestic industry and foreign companies "to thwart outside interference," the Minister of Economic Affairs said. The powers could be used to force foreign companies to produce military equipment that might be cut off by the embargo imposed by the United Nations last week, but the Economic Minister, Christian Heunis, said this was not the intention. He invoked sections of the National Supplies Procurement Act, a consolidation of wartime emergency measures that was passed in 1970. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 845.89 (+13.34, +1.60%)
S&P Composite: 95.98 (+1.27, +1.34%)
Arms Index: 0.69

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,237	26.93
Declines	313	4.72
Unchanged	315	3.61
Total Volume		35.26

* 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*
November 10, 1977	832.55	94.71	31.98
November 9, 1977	818.43	92.98	21.33
November 8, 1977	816.27	92.46	19.21
November 7, 1977	816.44	92.29	21.27
November 4, 1977	809.94	91.58	21.70
November 3, 1977	802.67	90.76	18.09
November 2, 1977	800.85	90.71	20.76
November 1, 1977	806.91	91.35	17.17
October 31, 1977	818.35	92.34	17.07
October 28, 1977	822.68	92.61	18.05