News stories from Wednesday December 6, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Midwest steel haulers are battling each other in a kind of highway guerrilla warfare. On one side are a group of owner-operators, who charge that the Teamsters union, which represents about a third of the 30,000 steel haulers, does not represent them well enough. That group, the Fraternal Association of Steel Haulers, seeks to underscore its point with the other side by stopping drivers, sometimes violently, as they move from mill to user. [New York Times]
- Democratic Party leaders will meet this weekend in Memphis to debate the party's future, with the Carter administration firmly in control and traditional liberals outnumbered and unhappy. The midterm party conference is devoted to policy issues, and complaints are expected to be heard over the administration's stress on inflation and budget balancing, traditional Republican concerns, over jobs, the long-time Democratic concern. [New York Times]
- Lobbyists are pressing to shape the composition of key committees in the next Congress. Many major decisions on Capitol Hill over the next two years will be strongly influenced by the complexion of these panels, and lobbyists are working early. But they have to be careful because heavy-handed pressure can easily hurt them. [New York Times]
- Assets of the People's Temple will be investigated by the Justice Department, which has begun issuing subpoenas for the records of banks in this country and abroad in which the cult and its founder, the Rev. Jim Jones, deposited more than $10 million. The inquiry raises the possibility that the Internal Revenue Service is trying to learn whether the cult, which declared itself a tax-exempt religious organization, might have gained assets on which taxes were owed. [New York Times]
- Bias against migrant workers led to a court suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union attacking a new Louisiana law empowering seven parish governments to require fingerprinting and special identification cards for the workers. The class action suit filed in federal district court also seeks to overturn an ordinance in one parish, based on the state authorization, requiring such identification for any worker changing jobs. [New York Times]
- Half the illicit recording industry was "wiped out," officials said, when more than 300 F.B.I. agents seized $100 million worth of modern sound-recording equipment in raids at 19 sites in five states. The confiscations followed a 20-month investigation. [New York Times]
- The effect of oil price rises charged by foreign producing nations should be "seriously" considered by the White House, the governors of six Northeast states said in a message to President Carter. Governor Carey of New York said some oil companies were withholding supplies to prompt price increases. [New York Times]
- Moscow seeks an arms limitation treaty speedily and expanded American-Soviet trade, Leonid Brezhnev told visiting delegations of United States officials and scores of business executives. The Soviet leader repeatedly stressed his desire for better ties with Washington, but warned that trade would continue to decline unless discriminatory legislation was repealed by Congress. [New York Times]
- Reaffirming human rights pledges, President Carter vowed to do his "utmost" to aid refugees from Indochina and Lebanon and political prisoners released from Cuba and other countries. [New York Times]
- High-level Israeli-Egyptian talks will resume soon, for the first time since Nov. 16, according to diplomatic sources in Washington. They said that Prime Minister Mustafa Khalil of Egypt would confer in Europe with Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman on the impasse in peace talks. [New York Times]
- Government transition in Japan was disrupted by a bitter squabble within the governing Liberal-Democratic Party that prevented Parliament from meeting to vote in Masayoshi Ohira as successor to Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda. The controversy involved the choice of the party's secretary general, and members of Mr. Fukuda's faction in Parliament refused to accept Mr. Ohira's selection of one of his closest aides for the job. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 821.90 (+1.39, +0.17%)
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 5, 1978 | 820.51 | 97.44 | 25.66 |
| December 4, 1978 | 806.83 | 96.15 | 22.02 |
| December 1, 1978 | 811.50 | 96.28 | 26.83 |
| November 30, 1978 | 799.03 | 94.70 | 19.90 |
| November 29, 1978 | 790.11 | 93.75 | 21.16 |
| November 28, 1978 | 804.14 | 95.15 | 22.74 |
| November 27, 1978 | 813.84 | 95.99 | 19.79 |
| November 24, 1978 | 810.12 | 95.79 | 14.59 |
| November 22, 1978 | 807.00 | 95.48 | 20.01 |
| November 21, 1978 | 804.05 | 95.01 | 20.76 |