News stories from Monday October 8, 1979

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

The Pope arrived back in Rome, tired but happy after his week-long journey around the United States. After telling welcomers that his spirit had been filled "with gratitude, joy and emotion," Pope John Paul II prayed in Saint Peter's Basilica, appeared at his balcony window and went to Castel Gandolfo, his summer home, for two days of rest. [New York Times] The equal rights amendment drive by the National Organization for Women will be concentrated in Illinois, according to financial documents obtained at the 12th annual convention of the nation's largest feminist organization. The proposal requires approval by three more states. [New York Times] Upgrading Northeast water systems and also federal aid in disposing of increasing hazardous wastes were sought by a number of the region's development groups. The consortium urged passage of legislation that would distribute government water funds to the states by a formula rather than the current project basis. The Northeast's share would be raised to 13 percent from the present 8 percent in aid now totaling $4 billion a year. [New York Times] A record payment for movie rights to a book, $2.5 million, was made by United Artists. The studio bought the rights to film "Thy Neighbor's Wife," a nonfiction book by Gay Talese about sex in America. Three movies may be made from the book, which Doubleday will publish next spring. [New York Times] Anti-nuclear demonstrators held a peaceful protest outside the gates of two nuclear power plants under construction in Seabrook, N.H., that they had failed to occupy over the weekend. Squadrons of troops kept a vigil as small bands of protesters roamed around the 120-acre site, snipping some holes in the fences. Many small clashes were reported. [New York Times] Three trains can halt operations under an order by Supreme Court Justice Byron White. He overruled an appeals court decision that had forced Amtrak to keep the trains running. Amtrak contended that the three, linking Chicago with Houston, Seattle and Miami, were losing money. [New York Times] A South African government scandal led to a six-year prison sentence for Eschel Rhoodie, the director of a multimillion-dollar propaganda campaign to improve South Africa's image in the United States and other countries. He had been convicted of diverting to his personal use $90,000 in clandestine funds earmarked to pay off collaborators. [New York Times] A deadlock on Zimbabwe Rhodesia seemed increasingly likely, with Britain and guerrilla leaders in an apparently basic conflict over the provisions of a new constitution. As the London conference entered its fifth week, neither group offered a way out of the impasse. [New York Times] Japan's governing party retained a perilously thin hold on power in the national elections Sunday, but the failure of the party to increase its strength in Parliament was a setback for Prime Minister Ohira. His Liberal Democrats won 248 seats, one less than in the last election and eight seats short of a majority in the 511-member lower house, but they will continue to govern with the aid of 10 victorious independents who have joined the party. [New York Times] An American strategic plan for fighting a global war has, for 25 years, called for Washington to shift forces from Asia and the Pacific to Western Europe in the event of a Soviet attack there, according to a secret Pentagon report. Asian countries have never been told of the plan, and top-level American officials are reassessing it and will probably decide later this year whether or not the strategy should be modified or abandoned. [New York Times] Czechoslovakia punished a writer by stripping him of his citizenship and barring his return from a visit in Austria. The action against Pavel Kohout, a leading playwright and novelist, may mark the end of a brief experiment designed to offer "sabbaticals" in the West to leading intellectual opponents of the government in return for their pledge to keep political silence while away from home. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 884.04 (-13.57, -1.51%)
S&P Composite: 109.88 (-1.39, -1.25%)
Arms Index: 1.69

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	300	3.64
Declines	1,266	25.92
Unchanged	322	3.05
Total Volume		32.61

* 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*
October 5, 1979	897.61	111.27	48.25
October 4, 1979	890.10	110.17	38.80
October 3, 1979	885.15	109.59	36.47
October 2, 1979	885.32	109.59	38.32
October 1, 1979	872.95	108.56	24.98
September 28, 1979	878.58	109.32	35.96
September 27, 1979	887.46	110.21	33.12
September 26, 1979	886.35	109.96	37.70
September 25, 1979	886.18	109.68	32.41
September 24, 1979	885.84	109.61	33.79