News stories from Friday December 16, 1977

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

Good news about the United States economy was reported by the Commerce Department, which says it is growing a little faster than expected. November housing starts totaled 2.1 million units at a seasonally adjusted rate, a drop of 5.4 percent from October, but 23 percent higher than in November 1976, Personal income was higher by nine-tenths of 1 percent last month and has gone up every month since July 1975. The income rise also led to an increase in retail sales. [New York Times] Mexico is irritated by the Carter administration's failure to approve the price for Mexican natural gas that had been agreed on by American distribution companies. It now will apparently have to be renegotiated. The price agreed on was about $2.60 per 1,000 cubic feet of gas. [New York Times] The stock market declined in moderate trading despite some encouraging economic news. The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 2.59 points to 815.32. Analysts continued to attribute the market's slide to the dollar's decline in foreign exchange markets. [New York Times] Japan marked up another billion-dollar trade surplus last month. Efforts were being made in Washington this week to put it down. Preliminary figures released by the Finance Ministry in Tokyo showed that Japanese exports last month continued to increase on a customs clearance basis while imports fell sharply. The figures were released as Nobuhiko Ushiba, the Minister for External Economic Affairs, completed talks in Washington and Brussels, where he proposed measures to increase Japan's imports. [New York Times] The Star of Bethlehem may have been a stellar flare-up recorded in Chinese annals rather than a conjunction of planets, as many have believed. The flare-up, or "nova," was observed for 70 days in the spring of 5 B.C., according to a specialist in ancient astronomical observations. This is roughly about the time when the Bible says the star witnessed the birth of Jesus and attracted the Wise Men with their gifts. The nova theory was described by a proponent, Dr. David Clark of Britain's Royal Greenwich Observatory, at a meeting this week at New York University. [New York Times] Israel is ready to restore to Egypt complete sovereignty over Sinai and to give local Palestinians control over internal affairs on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Menachem Begin told President Carter at their meeting at the White House. Other participants at the meeting said later that Israel would also negotiate with Egypt the right to keep a security corridor along the Sinai border on Israel, and that the Israeli army would remain in the West Bank for security reasons. [New York Times] Cuban and Soviet military missions to Ethiopia have doubled in connection with a Soviet airlift of arms, administration officials said in Washington. Some officials believe the increase indicated that preparations were being made for an attempt to recapture the Ogaden region from Somali forces. [New York Times] Two huge U.S.-owned tankers collided off the coast of South Africa and caught fire but without exploding or spilling large amounts of oil. At least two crewmen were killed. The tankers, traveling in opposite directions, were sister ships, the Venoil and the Venpet, both of 330,000 deadweight tons. Only the Venoil was carrying cargo, 250,000 tons of crude oil. Passing at close quarters to enable the crews to exchange greetings might have caused the collision, an official said. [New York Times] Peru, in a financial crisis, asked the United States for a $100 million loan to help it meet short-term debts, but was turned down, United States officials said. The Peruvian government cannot pay its foreign creditors, including the Soviet Union, without a major refinancing or its external debt. An obstacle to aid from the United States, according to official sources, is that Peru is due to pay the Soviet Union $60 million in January for arms purchases, but has not obtained a deferral. A representative of a group of United States banks that lent Peru $210 million last June to support a financial stabilization plan said the situation is much worse than it was then. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 815.32 (-2.51, -0.31%)
S&P Composite: 93.40 (-0.15, -0.16%)
Arms Index: 1.08

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	650	7.10
Declines	727	8.59
Unchanged	527	4.58
Total Volume		20.27

* 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 15, 1977	817.83	93.55	21.61
December 14, 1977	822.68	94.03	22.11
December 13, 1977	815.23	93.56	19.19
December 12, 1977	815.75	93.63	18.16
December 9, 1977	815.23	93.65	19.21
December 8, 1977	806.91	92.96	20.40
December 7, 1977	807.43	92.78	21.05
December 6, 1977	806.91	92.83	23.77
December 5, 1977	821.03	94.27	19.16
December 2, 1977	823.98	94.67	21.16