News stories from Thursday April 28, 1977

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

Many Americans, especially those who voted against President Carter, believe that he has turned out to be more conservative than they had expected. This, according to a national poll, has broadened the President's public support. A nationwide telephone survey by the New York Times and CBS News also indicated that 65 percent of the public approves of the President's performance as he completes his first 100 days in office.In his first 100 days in office, President Carter has apparently made a serious effort to give the vice presidency a more meaningful and influential status. If the opinion of numerous White House sources is correct, the effort is succeeding. [New York Times] Discrimination against handicapped persons in employment, in schools and other institutions that receive federal funding will be prohibited under government regulations that take effect June 1. Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, signed regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The government rules also ban employment discrimination against people who have had heart disease or cancer and rehabilitated alcoholics and drug addicts. [New York Times] Consumers were overcharged in the amount of $336 million between October 1973 and May 1975 by 20 major oil companies, the Federal Energy Administration has charged. The alleged inflation of prices, which the F.E.A. has been debating with the companies for nearly two years, occurred, the agency said, when the companies transferred imported oil from their foreign subsidiaries to their domestic subsidiaries at prices above fair value. [New York Times] The government took steps to prevent, in effect, the cornering of the soybean market by the Hunt family of Texas oil industrialists. The Federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission asked the Federal District Court in Chicago to order the Hunt interests to liquidate their holdings in soybean futures contracts that exceed legal limits. The Hunt contracts were said to total about a third of what the government had predicted would be the nation's stock of soybeans in August. [New York Times] Stock prices rose for the third consecutive trading day, bringing the Dow Jones industrial average up 3.56 points to 927.32. From Tuesday through today, the Dow advanced nearly 13 points, making a recovery from a 12½-point loss on Monday that brought the average to a 15-month low. [New York Times] Burlington Northern, operator of the nation's longest railroad, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with overstating its earnings and prospects since 1970 through inadequately describing the condition of the railroad's equipment and its profitability. The S.E.C. at the same time put the entire railroad industry on notice that their disclosures may not be giving investors all the information they need to make decisions. [New York Times] An agreement on fishing rights was announced by the United States and Cuba as a result of the first direct diplomatic negotiations between the two countries in 16 years. The accord was regarded by the Carter administration as a limited step toward normal relations between Washington and Havana. [New York Times] A shipload of uranium ore disappeared at sea nine years ago and some American and European intelligence officials are convinced that its 200 tons went to Israel. The cargo's disappearance is related in a speech prepared for delivery at a conference on nuclear issues tomorrow in Austria by Paul Leventhal, a former Senate Government Operations Committee staff expert on the spread of nuclear weapons. [New York Times] The Soviet military buildup "in almost every area seems to outpace the intensity and scope of Western military programs" to the point that Russian "military options are increasing," the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London said. In an unusually outspoken analysis of the global strategic balance, the institute attacked President Carter's policies on nuclear disarmament and human rights. The institute is an independent body. [New York Times] The people of Ethiopia were told by the revolutionary military government to be ready to respond to "an emergency call of the motherland." The government seemed to be making preparations for the mobilization of a civilian army that would be sent to fight in the north against secessionist Eritrean guerrillas and an invading rightist army. [New York Times] Saudi Arabia said, according to Washington sources, that it would join a supplemental credit facility of the International Monetary Fund only if the loans were given to developing countries. Saudi Arabia's contribution was expected to be up to $4 billion. The special fund would contain a total of $8 billion, about half of what was originally planned. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 927.32 (+3.56, +0.39%)
S&P Composite: 98.20 (+0.24, +0.24%)
Arms Index: 0.79

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	784	9.37
Declines	632	5.96
Unchanged	457	3.04
Total Volume		18.37

* 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*
April 27, 1977	923.76	97.96	20.59
April 26, 1977	915.62	97.11	20.04
April 25, 1977	914.60	97.33	20.44
April 22, 1977	927.07	98.44	20.70
April 21, 1977	935.80	99.75	22.74
April 20, 1977	942.59	100.40	25.09
April 19, 1977	938.77	100.07	19.51
April 18, 1977	942.76	100.54	17.83
April 15, 1977	947.76	101.04	20.23
April 14, 1977	947.00	101.00	30.49