News stories from Tuesday February 20, 1979

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

All Mardi Gras parades were canceled in New Orleans because of a five-day-old strike by policemen. Eighteen major marches planned for the next week will not be held and much of the carnival revelry will take place outside the city's French Quarter. [New York Times] A ban on the sale of offshore leases for oil and natural gas exploration on the Georges Bank was lifted by a federal appellate court, clearing the way for the auction of 155 lease sites covering 700,000 acres off Cape Cod. But the ruling imposed on the Interior Secretary a responsibility to protect the fertile fishing area and warned that the court might intervene to halt the lease sale if he failed to do so. [New York Times] As President Carter revisited the Georgia legislature, he was warmly welcomed by his old political enemies, who far outnumber his half-dozen original presidential supporters there. Mr. Carter, grinning broadly, unveiled a portrait of him that will hang in the state Senate chamber and remarked, "I know it has been somewhat of a surprise to some of you that I've been successful in the elections." [New York Times] Scattered reports of looting continued in Baltimore, where a second all-night curfew was imposed. The police reported that 337 persons had been arrested for looting after a 24-inch snowfall paralyzed the city.Farmers aided Washington in recovering, from its worst snowfall since 1922. The farmers, who had tried to tie up the capital two weeks ago in a protest over price supports, used their tractors to ferry doctors and nurses to hospitals and to haul buses, plows, ambulances and fire trucks out of the two-foot-deep snow. [New York Times] Any attack on Taiwan would be viewed with "grave concern" by Washington and lead to "appropriate action" under the terms of legislation that the Carter administration was reported close to agreement on with key congressional leaders. The administration reluctantly accepted compromise language to obtain passage of a bill allowing the new China policy to take effect, officials said. [New York Times] President Carter said that turbulence in Iran and Indochina would not generate any basic revision of Washington's foreign policy, particularly the effort to reach a strategic arms limitation treaty with Moscow. The President also served notice that this country would respect Iran's "independence and integrity" and that any failure by Moscow to do likewise "will have serious consequences."Iran's revolutionary authorities announced that four more generals had been put to death and said that more executions of leading supporters of the monarchy would follow. The executions, carried out by order of Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic court, surprised the office of Prime Minister Bazargan, who said last week that no further executions were in order. [New York Times] Renewed Chinese-Vietnamese fighting was reported after earlier indications that the Chinese advance might have halted about six miles inside Vietnam. Analysts in Hong Kong said they believed that Peking's forces had now penetrated about 10 miles into Vietnam in two major salients along rail lines. But it appeared the Chinese may again have halted. [New York Times] Hanoi celebrated a treaty signed with the new Cambodian government. The pact, together with a similar treaty signed with Laos, gives Hanoi a firmer hold on all of Indochina. [New York Times] Quebec's Liberal Party told Quebecers that they could gain the powers they seek without breaking up Canada. The Liberals proposed a special status for the province within a new Canadian federation, as an alternative to the proposal by the Parti Quebecois that Quebec assume sovereignty in association with Canada. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 834.55 (+7.54, +0.91%)
S&P Composite: 99.42 (+0.75, +0.76%)
Arms Index: 0.56

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	877	13.74
Declines	541	4.75
Unchanged	432	3.52
Total Volume		22.01

* 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*
February 16, 1979	827.01	98.67	21.11
February 15, 1979	829.09	98.73	22.56
February 14, 1979	829.78	98.87	27.22
February 13, 1979	830.21	98.93	28.47
February 12, 1979	824.84	98.20	20.61
February 9, 1979	822.23	97.87	24.32
February 8, 1979	818.87	97.65	23.36
February 7, 1979	816.01	97.16	28.45
February 6, 1979	822.85	98.05	23.57
February 5, 1979	823.98	98.09	26.49