News stories from Thursday January 19, 1978

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

President Carter told a joint session of Congress in his State of the Union address that his administration's priorities for 1978 were a strong energy bill, coordinated economic program and Senate approval of the Panama Canal treaties, and called for a new "partnership between those who lead and those who elect." He proposed, as expected, a $25 billion tax reduction, a new federal Department of Education and extensive reform of the civil service system to encourage promotion on the basis of merit. [New York Times] President Carter promised to reduce the income taxes of 96 percent of the country's taxpayers and to cut the taxes of an average family by more than $250 a year. He also proposed, in a special written message to Congress that accompanied the State of the Union message, a modest expansion of federal job programs with particular stress on employment opportunities for young people and jobs in private industry. He disappointed many local officials by recommending no increase in federally funded jobs in municipal governments. [New York Times] The nation's economic growth declined to an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 1977, the lowest pace of the year, the Commerce Department said. The decline mainly reflected the reluctance of manufacturers to restock their inventories, but consumers were actively purchasing goods and services. The fourth quarter brought the average increase in national output (or gross national product) to 4.9 percent for the full year, only slightly below the goal of 5.1 percent set by the Carter administration when it took office last January. The growth figure for 1976 was 6 percent. [New York Times] Stock prices dropped, reflecting caution on Wall Street before President Carter's State of the Union address last night. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 7.63 points to 778.67, cutting in half its advance of more than 14 points in the two previous sessions. Alcoa, DuPont and Allied Chemical lost a point or more. [New York Times] Some clue to the collapse of 1,400 tons of steel that spanned the roof of the coliseum in Hartford's Civic Center Wednesday was being sought by engineers and city officials. Theories ranged from problems caused by the weight of snow and ice on the structure, to problems in its design, to all kinds of possible structural deficiencies that brought about a spectacular structural disaster. [New York Times] Fred Silverman, ABC-TV's program chief, will leave when his contract expires next May to become top executive officer of the National Broadcasting Company, industry sources said. He is generally credited with guiding ABC-TV's rise to first from third place in the national ratings. At NBC he will be in charge of the company's entire broadcast operations. The NBC television network has fallen to third place this season. [New York Times] Secretary of State Cyrus Vance obtained "clarifications" from Prime Minister Menachem Begin that he hopes can persuade President Anwar Sadat to send his negotiators back to Jerusalem. Mr. Vance is scheduled to meet with President Sadat tomorrow, and American officials said that his strategy would be to demonstrate that more progress has now been made toward an agreement of principles for a Middle East settlement than Mr. Sadat might have realized when he abruptly recalled the Egyptian delegation. [New York Times] Egypt waited to see what steps the United States would take to mend the ruptured peace negotiations with Israel. Several Egyptian officials said they hoped the Americans would become more active as an intermediary in the critical new phase. They said they were surprised at President Sadat's decision to recall the Egyptian Foreign Minister from Jerusalem, but defended it as a necessary challenge to Israel's intransigence. [New York Times] The N.A.A.C.P. is demanding the total withdrawal of American businesses from South Africa, going beyond past resolutions that urged American companies to stop investing there until apartheid is ended. About 350 American-owned companies are doing business in South Africa. [New York Times] Giulio Andreotti, leader of Italy's Christian Democratic Party, was asked by President Giovanni Leone to form another government, and he accepted. He has been heading a caretaker administration since he offered to resign as Prime Minister on Monday. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 778.67 (-7.63, -0.97%)
S&P Composite: 90.09 (-0.47, -0.52%)
Arms Index: 1.39

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	671	7.28
Declines	711	10.74
Unchanged	483	3.48
Total Volume		21.50

* 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*
January 18, 1978	786.30	90.56	21.39
January 17, 1978	779.02	89.88	19.36
January 16, 1978	771.74	89.43	18.76
January 13, 1978	775.73	89.69	18.01
January 12, 1978	778.15	89.82	22.73
January 11, 1978	775.90	89.74	22.88
January 10, 1978	781.53	90.17	25.18
January 9, 1978	784.56	90.64	27.90
January 6, 1978	793.49	91.62	26.15
January 5, 1978	804.92	92.74	23.57