News stories from Friday November 23, 1979

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

Repudiation of Iran's foreign debts was announced by its new Economic and Foreign Minister, but later he said that some contracts would be honored. The announcement caused confusion because Iran's Central Bank has issued assurances that foreign debts would not be repudiated.Foreign bankers tried to unravel the contradictory statements over Iran's position on honoring its overseas debts. Bankers in London said it appeared that Iranian bankers were struggling with revolutionary leaders, and they estimated the debts at less than half the $15 billion cited by Iran. A repudiation of foreign debts would cut Iran off from obtaining any new foreign credits and probably reduce its international trade to a shambles, according to predictions by American bankers and economists. [New York Times] A sterner warning to Iran was made by President Carter, who said that the consequences would be "extremely grave" if even one of the remaining 49 American hostages in Teheran was harmed. The President stepped up his warnings in response to the rising threats to the safety of American Embassy personnel. [New York Times] The occupation of the Grand Mosque in Mecca seemed to be ending. A Saudi official announced that government forces had control of the mosque and that a complete account of the seizure would be made public after the last assailants were arrested. The gunmen were said to be Sunni Moslems, not Shiites as first reported. [New York Times] Two U.S. companies in South Africa are embroiled in disputes with their black workers that spring in part from apartheid. The Ford Motor Company and the General Tire and Rubber Company have dismissed 1,300 blacks. One facet of the dispute involves charges by a white union that management is capitulating to blacks. [New York Times] A new natural gas discovery in the Baltimore Canyon was announced by Texaco Inc. It was the most impressive discovery to date and it stirred speculation that enough gas may now be in the undersea area off New Jersey to make recovery worthwhile. Texaco has found gas at five depths in two of the three wells it has drilled in the canyon and Tenneco Inc. has found both gas and oil in a nearby well. [New York Times] Financial risks of a nuclear accident have led utilities to develop an insurance system under a company that is to be set up in Bermuda early next year. The utilities acted because the nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island plant last March cost its operator $1 billion to $1.8 billion to buy generating power from other sources.Drug arrests of nuclear plant guards have sent tremors through the industry and to federal regulators. Early this month, 11 guards at a generating plant on the Columbia River were arrested by the Oregon state police on charges of drug dealing. The issue is particularly sensitive since it arose at a time when Americans have been retreating from overwhelming support of nuclear power to a position of concern. [New York Times] Iranian students resist deportation, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Officials said that of 2,218 Iranians not complying with the terms of their visas and therefore subject to deportation, only 285 had agreed to leave voluntarily. [New York Times] Alaska has a $1 billion surplus because of revenue from its North Slope oil, whose price is tied to the soaring charges posted by petroleum exporting countries. Alaskans have deluged politicians and newspapers with spending suggestions, including a proliferation of aid and loan programs and construction projects. [New York Times] Bolivia faced a major crisis over differences between its army commander and the civilian government that replaced a military dictatorship last week. President Lydia Tejada ordered the commander to step down. He refused, threatened revolt and placed his troops on alert at his headquarters in La Paz. [New York Times] An Irishman was convicted of murder in the death of Earl Mountbatten of Burma last Aug. 27 and sentenced by a Dublin court to life in prison. The 31-year-old defendant, Thomas McMahon, was said by the police to be the leading expert on remote-controlled bombs in the provisional Irish Republican Army. No appeal is possible. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 811.77 (+4.35, +0.54%)
S&P Composite: 104.67 (+0.78, +0.75%)
Arms Index: 0.69

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	946	15.13
Declines	467	5.18
Unchanged	432	2.99
Total Volume		23.30

* 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*
November 21, 1979	807.42	103.89	37.02
November 20, 1979	809.22	103.69	35.01
November 19, 1979	815.27	104.23	33.09
November 16, 1979	815.70	103.79	30.06
November 15, 1979	821.33	104.13	32.37
November 14, 1979	816.55	103.39	30.95
November 13, 1979	814.08	102.94	29.24
November 12, 1979	821.93	103.51	26.66
November 9, 1979	806.48	101.51	30.06
November 8, 1979	797.61	100.30	26.27