News stories from Thursday February 17, 1977

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

After being urged at a White House breakfast meeting to stay within the limits of President Carter's economic stimulus program, members of the House Ways and Means Committee completed action on the program. A $50 tax rebate for most taxpayers and changes in the standard deduction intended to help lower-income people were approved, but the committee made substantial changes in projected benefits for business. [New York Times] Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will present an annual major television documentary on international affairs for at least the next five years under a contract he has signed with the National Broadcasting Company. His remuneration was not disclosed. [New York Times] The government's sale of $1.13 billion In leases for oil and gas drilling rights in the Atlantic Ocean was voided by a federal judge because of what he called considerable evidence that environmental impact statements and public hearings on the lease issue had been a "charade." [New York Times] A technical rally in stock prices ended abruptly as most prices declined in slower trading. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 4.57 points to 943.73 at the close, its low for the day. The Treasury sold $2.5 billion of two-year notes at an average interest rate of 5.98 percent, a rate slightly lower than many dealers in government securities had anticipated. Prices in the credit markets weakened when the federal weekly money supply report was issued. [New York Times] Mexico's crude all reserves are much larger, according to estimates, than Mexican officials have been willing to admit publicly. The reserves are now believed to exceed 60 billion barrels, about six times larger than Alaska's North Slope deposit. The official figure in Mexico was 11 billion barrels. The larger figure has been accepted by American officials and oil experts and was privately confirmed by Mexican officials. [New York Times] Whether natural gas producers have deliberately been holding back production to drive prices higher will be investigated by Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus. He said that preliminary inquiry had found production in four natural gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico has been substantially below maximum and that he was confident he would "in some instances" order lease holders to drill more wells and increase production. [New York Times] Despite the Carter administration's proposal to repeal the Byrd amendment that allowed Rhodesian chrome imports to the United States despite United Nations sanctions, Rhodesian officials were confident that they could divert their chrome exports to other markets and that some chrome will still reach the United States. Rhodesia's Secretary for Mines, Michael Cawood, said "the repeal of the amendment would not at this stage be a major disadvantage to Rhodesia's mining industry." Chrome exports to the United States has been one of Rhodesia's principal foreign-exchange earners. [New York Times] President Anwar Sadat of Egypt made a move aimed at breaking the Middle East impasse with a proposal that the Palestinians form "an official and declared link" with Jordan even before the conference on the Middle East is resumed in Geneva. He made the proposal at a news conference in Cairo with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. If the Palestinians agree to the proposal, they would form a joint delegation with Jordan. This would make unlikely the formation of a separate, independent Palestinian state. [New York Times] The official accounts of the death of the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda and two ministers of the Uganda government were regarded with skepticism. The International Association of Jurists in Geneva called for an international inquiry. Canon Carr, head of the All Africa Council of Churches in Nairobi, called the Archbishop's death "murder." The Archbishop and the Uganda cabinet ministers were officially reported to have been killed in an automobile accident Wednesday just after they had been arrested on charges of plotting to overthrow President Idi Amin. [New York Times] When telephones had been disconnected, Rumanian policemen began arrests of well-known dissidents and supporters of human rights in Bucharest. Among the first to be arrested was Paul Goma, a novelist. Meanwhile, President Nicolae Ceausescu denounced dissidents and would-be emigrants as "traitors" in an unusually harsh speech at a meeting of Communist Party secretaries that was televised nationally. [New York Times] In Moscow, Andrei Sakharov, the unofficial head of the dissident movement in the Soviet Union, showed reporters a letter he had received from President Carter assuring him of the Carter administration's commitment to human rights. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 943.73 (-4.57, -0.48%)
S&P Composite: 100.92 (-0.58, -0.57%)
Arms Index: 1.46

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	480	4.01
Declines	918	11.22
Unchanged	482	3.81
Total Volume		19.04

* 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*
February 16, 1977	948.30	101.50	23.43
February 15, 1977	944.32	101.04	21.62
February 14, 1977	938.33	100.74	19.23
February 11, 1977	931.52	100.22	20.51
February 10, 1977	937.92	100.82	22.34
February 9, 1977	933.84	100.73	23.64
February 8, 1977	942.24	101.60	24.04
February 7, 1977	946.31	101.89	20.70
February 4, 1977	947.89	101.88	23.13
February 3, 1977	947.14	101.85	23.79