News stories from Tuesday December 28, 1976

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

An oil spill on the Delaware River spreading south from Philadelphia to New Castle, Del., after the grounding of a Liberian tanker, threatens 60,000 waterfowl wintering in the estuary. Russell Train, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said it was time for more stringent territorial regulation of foreign shipping in United States waters. [New York Times] Members of the Carter cabinet-to-be met in Georgia to hear the President-elect exhort them to carry out his campaign promises, but his advisers and his spokesman said that an assured cut in defense spending was not among these commitments. Another cabinet member was doubtful of speedy fulfillment of the promise of federal assumption of welfare costs. [New York Times] Some sub-cabinet positions In the Carter administration may be left vacant, to set the stage for government reorganization and as an example of reducing federal bureaucracy. An aide said that the President-elect had ordered studies of reducing cabinet members' personal staffs and secretariats as well as the higher posts. [New York Times] Opposition is fading to the nomination of Griffin Bell as Attorney General, according to spokesmen for some of the groups that have been investigating his background as a federal judge. It now appears that a serious effort to block confirmation is unlikely. [New York Times] The Dec. 31, 1976, stock prices will gain a kind of immortality in tax history. Under the Tax Reform Act, which comes into effect on New Year's Day, taxpayers who die will no longer elude capital gains taxes. These will be computed on the basis of market prices of Dec. 31. [New York Times] The November trade deficit set a $906 million record and raised the 11-month excess of imports over exports to $5 billion compared with a surplus of $11 billion for all of 1975, the Commerce Department reported. The swing has not depreciated the dollar's exchange value and has been a major help to other countries, both industrial and less developed, with big balance-of-payments deficits. The American government has expressed little concern. [New York Times] Stock prices registered a broad advance, with the Dow industrial average gaining 3.99 points to close at 1,000.08, finishing above the 1,000 level for the first time in three months. The credit market displayed a surprising surge in bidder interest as the Treasury sold $2.5 billion of new 61-month notes at an average yield of 6.19 percent. [New York Times] Fears of fuel shortages, especially in natural gas, have been stirred this winter by cold weather, driving energy costs higher all over the country. With supplies already tight, plant closings and job losses could occur before spring. Demand for fuel oil is up 22 percent, pushing prices higher and causing a surge in Imported oil. [New York Times] Rev. Sun Myung Moon's writings and the principles of his Unification Church were called "anti-Jewish, anti-Christian and anti-democratic" by a panel of Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders. They said they would send copies of their findings to all members of Congress with an appeal for continued federal investigation of Mr. Moon's alleged links with the South Korean intelligence agency and Washington influence peddling. [New York Times] President Ford rejected the Civil Aeronautics Board's plan to expand trans-Atlantic routes to give 11 additional metropolitan areas non-stop service to Europe. Citing foreign policy reasons, he returned the plan to the C.A.B. for further study. [New York Times] The death at 78 of Alex Rose, leader of the millinery union who made the Liberal Party a significant factor in New York City, New York state and national politics, left the party's future cloudy. Next year's mayoral election could be a pivotal element in its development. An even bigger question is what the Liberal Party can accomplish without Mr. Rose's political skills. [New York Times] Meeting with Mayor Beame and Governor Carey, President-elect Carter promised to work to keep New York City out of bankruptcy. He said he would also help assure the meeting of the city's future borrowing needs and would keep reviewing what action he could take to help end its budget deficit next year. The city and state leaders welcomed this word as a signal to the banks and labor leaders to help redeem the city's previously frozen short-term notes. [New York Times] West Point's commandant of cadets is being transferred without a promotion. Brigadier General Walter Ulmer said he's never had the opportunity to defend himself specifically against the charges relating to the cheating scandal. Ulmer believes that his hard stance against the readmission of the cadets who were involved may have hurt his career. [CBS] A major shakeup in China of party members and local government officials was announced by the new Communist party chairman, Hua Kuo-feng, as the main task for 1977. The aim is to get rid of all who won their positions through connection with Chiang Ching, widow of Mao Tse-tung, and her three associates in disgrace. Plans for rapid economic growth were also outlined. [New York Times] An international arms swindle that involved shady munitions dealers, Libyan agents in Spain, a Swiss bank account and 3,000 pairs of fake night-vision binoculars is under investigation in Paris. Purporting to be Startrons costing $5,000 each, the binoculars were actually models costing $32. [New York Times] South Korea's ambassador, Hahn Pyong Choon, commenting in Washington on allegations of Korean bribes to American Congressmen, said the damage was "rather serious" and could become worse unless more was done to protect the basic bilateral relationship. He said he was optimistic because members of Congress saw the common interests of the two countries. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1000.08 (+3.99, +0.40%)
S&P Composite: 106.77 (+0.71, +0.67%)
Arms Index: 0.68

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,050	16.92
Declines	450	4.94
Unchanged	441	3.93
Total Volume		25.79

* 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 27, 1976	996.09	106.06	20.13
December 23, 1976	985.62	104.84	24.56
December 22, 1976	984.54	104.71	26.97
December 21, 1976	978.39	104.22	24.39
December 20, 1976	972.41	103.65	20.69
December 17, 1976	979.06	104.26	23.87
December 16, 1976	981.30	104.80	23.92
December 15, 1976	983.79	105.14	28.30
December 14, 1976	980.63	105.07	25.13
December 13, 1976	974.24	104.63	24.83