News stories from Monday January 10, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Some effect of President-elect Carter's proposed economic stimulus program may be apparent this summer, possibly sooner, Charles Schultze, chairman-designate of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview. He expects an increase in retail sales by the end of the April-June quarter and a rise in business orders for new equipment by the following quarter, then increased production and less unemployment. [New York Times]
- The federal government's increased support of public television in the 1976-77 fiscal year has not significantly added to public television's ability to produce ambitious national programs of the scope and quality of those bought from the British Broadcasting Corporation. This has caused great concern among many executives of public broadcasting. [New York Times]
- An indication that the economy is picking up was a 3.1 percent increase in retail sales in December, the biggest monthly increase in four years, the Commerce Department said.
The nation's retailers were told that 1977 will be a good year but not a boom year. They were given a forecast of a 9 percent gain in sales over 1976, at least a 5 percent to 6 percent inflation rate and a 4 percent to 5 percent advance in real dollars for disposable personal income. The figures were projected at the opening of the annual convention of the National Retail Merchants Association in New York City.
[New York Times] - Stock prices closed moderately higher in quiet trading. It was the third straight upturn of the new year, but none have been particularly strong or broadly based. The Dow Jones average closed up 3.79 points at 986.87. High-grade utility bonds were priced to yield 8.23 percent -- almost half a percentage point more than the rate of return on similar bonds sold last week. Government bonds continued to fluctuate, sharply declining and then bouncing back near the close. [New York Times]
- The Supreme Court refused to consider whether Federal District Judge Arthur Garrity of Boston had exceeded his authority when he took over the control of the racially troubled South Boston High School in an effort to desegregate it. The Boston School Committee, whose members are elected, asked the Court to review the order that put the high school under receivership control of Judge Garrity's court. The Court's refusal means that the receivership may continue. [New York Times]
- Patricia Roberts Harris, a Washington lawyer and Secretary-designate of Housing and Urban Development in the Carter administration, was questioned at a Senate hearing about her qualifications for the post. Senator William Proxmire raised doubts about her ability to identify with the poor and downtrodden, and she replied, "I am one of them." [New York Times]
- Ellen Marie Barrett, the focus of controversy both as a woman and as a lesbian in her pursuit of priesthood, was ordained as an Episcopal priest by Bishop Paul Moore of the Diocese of New York. The rites were held at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan. Miss Barrett, 30 years old and a resident of Berkeley, Calif., made no secret of her homosexuality. Bishop Moore, who has given her his unqualified support, ordained her as a deacon in 1975. [New York Times]
- No American president will ever let the Soviet Union gain strategic superiority, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger predicted, adding that the concept of strategic supremacy made no sense in the nuclear age. On a somewhat different tack, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that the adverse trends of the last 10 or 15 years must be reversed "now and in the future by providing real increases for national security." [New York Times]
- Security police in Prague arrested Pavel Kohout, the Czechoslovak playwright whose "Poor Murderer" closed on Broadway last week, several hours after his wife had been dragged into a police car outside his house. These were the latest arrests by police seeking to intimidate signers of a petition for human rights in Czechoslovakia published last week in Western Europe. [New York Times]
- Abu Dhabi, the rich Arab emirate which has copied Saudi Arabia's low oil price policy, does not plan major new oil production increases this year, officials of the emirate said in an interview. But Abu Dhabi will carry out plans, made before the meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries last month, to change oil production ceilings in ways that could increase total production by as much as 12 percent this year. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 986.87 (+3.74, +0.38%)
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 7, 1977 | 983.13 | 105.01 | 21.72 |
| January 6, 1977 | 979.89 | 105.02 | 23.92 |
| January 5, 1977 | 978.06 | 104.76 | 25.01 |
| January 4, 1977 | 987.87 | 105.70 | 22.74 |
| January 3, 1977 | 999.75 | 107.00 | 21.28 |
| December 31, 1976 | 1004.65 | 107.46 | 19.17 |
| December 30, 1976 | 999.09 | 106.88 | 23.70 |
| December 29, 1976 | 994.93 | 106.34 | 21.91 |
| December 28, 1976 | 1000.08 | 106.77 | 25.79 |
| December 27, 1976 | 996.09 | 106.06 | 20.13 |