News stories from Monday August 22, 1977

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

The Georgia bank formerly headed by Bert Lance will be reimbursed for the cost of five flights that President Carter took on the bank's airplane in 1975 and 1976, the White House said. Jody Powell, the White House press secretary, said that the failure to pay for the flights was an "unintentional oversight." It seemed, however, that the White House statements put the President deeper into the controversy surrounding Mr. Lance. [New York Times] Coal miners in West Virginia agreed to end their eight-week wildcat strike for 60 days while attempts are made to settle their grievances. The miners were protesting cutbacks in medical benefits provided by the United Mine Workers Health and Retirement Fund. The agreement provided that if the grievances were not settled in 60 days, the union's contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association would be terminated. [New York Times] New factory orders for durable goods in July showed the biggest decline in two and a half years, falling 4.4 percent, the Commerce Department said. They declined 1 percent in June. The previous biggest decline was 7.4 percent in December 1974. Most of the drop was in the transportation sector. Orders for commercial aircraft waned following a strong showing in June and the cancellation of the government's B-1 bomber contract. [New York Times] Bargain-hunting in the depressed glamour and blue-chip stocks helped bring the market up from a decline that started when many major banks followed Citibank in increasing their prime rates from 6¾ percent to 7 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been taking a battering in previous sessions, moved up 3.81 points to 867.29. Rising stocks narrowly outnumbered declining ones by a margin of 704 to 656. [New York Times] NBC shook up its top television management, apparently because of the network's recent poor showing in ratings. Robert Howard, president of NBC's television network, was dismissed and Robert Mulholland, a seasoned executive of NBC News and Sports, was promoted to replace him. [New York Times] Trans International Airlines, the nation's largest charter carrier, escalated the war over intercontinental air fares by proposing to extend its route to Asia. The airline, a subsidiary of the Transamerica Corporation, asked the Civil Aeronautics Board to approve fares on scheduled flights that would represent new lows between five American cities and Hong Kong and Tokyo. [New York Times] On his arrival for talks in Peking, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was awaited by new Chinese leaders who seemed in a far more confident and stable position than the leadership at any time since at least former President Nixon's visit in early 1972. It apparently was decided at the 11th congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which ended this weekend, that power would be shared by Hua Xuo-feng, the 36-year-old party chairman; Yeh Chien-ying, the 79-year-old Minister of Defense, and Teng Hsiao-ping, the 73-year-old Deputy Prime Minister, who was rehabilitated last month. [New York Times] France said it had received information that South Africa was preparing an atomic test explosion, and the Foreign Minister, Louis de Guiringaud, warned against it. The announcement was made a day after South Africa officially denied reports, originally made by Tass, the Soviet press agency, that it was to test a nuclear weapon. The South African Foreign Minister, Roelof Botha, said Sunday he had told the United States and other governments that the reports were "wholly and totally unfounded." [New York Times] Britain's assistant air traffic controllers voted overwhelmingly to turn a slowdown into an all-out strike that could affect more than a million travelers beginning at midnight Thursday, Their refusal for several days to use a computer to plan flights has already caused many flight cancellations and long delays. The dispute goes far beyond discomforting travelers: it has become a major test of the government's resolve to restrain wage demands. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 867.29 (+3.81, +0.44%)
S&P Composite: 97.79 (+0.28, +0.29%)
Arms Index: 0.70

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	719	9.08
Declines	672	5.96
Unchanged	498	2.83
Total Volume		17.87

* 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*
August 19, 1977	863.48	97.51	20.80
August 18, 1977	864.26	97.68	21.04
August 17, 1977	864.59	97.74	20.92
August 16, 1977	869.28	97.73	19.34
August 15, 1977	874.13	98.18	15.75
August 12, 1977	871.10	97.88	16.87
August 11, 1977	877.43	98.16	21.74
August 10, 1977	887.04	98.92	18.28
August 9, 1977	879.42	98.05	19.90
August 8, 1977	879.42	97.99	15.87