News stories from Wednesday November 1, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- In a stunning move to save the sinking dollar and fight inflation, President Carter announced that the Federal Reserve Board is pushing up its key interest rate by a full percentage point. The move caused the dollar to rebound dramatically on world markets -- but many U.S. economists expressed concern that the interest rate increase heightens the risk of a recession. [Chicago Tribune]
- The stock market welcomed the government's rescue plan for the dollar by scoring its biggest gain in history today. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had tumbled 104 points in the last 12 trading days, soared 35.34 to close at 827.79. The gain eclipsed the previous record increase of 32.93 posted Aug. 15, 1971, when former President Nixon imposed a wage-price freeze.
The value of the dollar rose sharply in foreign currency markets amid what was sometimes described as chaotic trading conditions. The price of gold tumbled.
Many of the nation's commercial banks raised the prime rate to 10½ per cent from 10¼ per cent. It was the second increase in two weeks and the 11th this year.
[Chicago Tribune] - President Carter, in a phone call from Washington, told an administration-sponsored inflation forum in St. Louis that, despite the rejection of his voluntary wage and price guidelines by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. leadership, he believes "the working people" will support them. Robert Kelly, president of the St. Louis Labor Council, disagreed with George Meany's position and pledged cooperation with the President's program as did business leaders in attendance. [Chicago Tribune]
- A congressional report accused South Korea's Rev. Sun Myung Moon of trying to create "a worldwide government" based on a vast Moon organization that has broken many American laws. The report of the House International Relations Subcommittee charged that the controversial evangelist, whose Unification Church has won many American converts, has worked with covert support of the Seoul government to build up a powerful network of enterprises dedicated to creating a universal anti-Communist theocracy. [Chicago Tribune]
- New Yorkers could have their New York Times and Daily News back by Sunday, publishers said after a tentative settlement of the 85-day pressmen's strike was announced. But that timetable was threatened by a snag in bargaining with truck drivers. Negotiators said the drivers union was demanding that the papers replenish the fund that pays health and welfare benefits to its members. [Chicago Tribune]
- The wife of a bank executive was kidnapped from her Las Vegas home today and released unharmed after her husband delivered $250,000 in ransom to a suspect who was immediately captured, the F.B.I. said. F.B.I. agents and police surrounded the drop point -- a busy shopping center two miles east of the Las Vegas "strip" -- and arrested Brook Reynolds, 21, within minutes after the release of June Horch, wife of a First National Bank vice president. [Chicago Tribune]
- Jewish groups conducted an organized campaign to keep ABC-TV from airing a documentary about the Palestine Liberation Organization, a network spokesman charged. The hour-long program, broadcast Monday night, was called "Terror in the Promised Land." [Chicago Tribune]
- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that it is reasonable to believe a food market customer who conceals a ham in his pants intends to steal it. The court upheld a one-year sentence against Johnny Collette. Collette's attorneys argued the conviction should be overturned because Collette was apprehended when he had not left the store. [Chicago Tribune]
- Employees of Iran's state-run airline walked off the job, joining an estimated 40,000 oil workers whose strike has shut down Iran's $20-billion-a-year petroleum industry. Like the oil workers, the airline employees say they want an end to martial law in Tehran and 11 other cities. The airline strike grounded Iran's domestic and international flights and affected service by other carriers. Newly installed Justice Minister Hussein Najafi said that all Iranian political prisoners will be released Dec. 10. [Chicago Tribune]
- Heavy fighting has broken out between Chinese and Vietnamese troops in a mountainous border pass, Radio Hanoi said. It said thousands of Chinese reinforcements were moving to the battle near a Vietnamese village 135 miles northeast of Hanoi and that the situation was "very tense." Vietnam accused China of carrying out continued border violations near the "Friendship Gate," an entry point on the frontier. [Chicago Tribune]
- United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim has accepted a formal Invitation to visit Cambodia and assess human rights there, his spokesman said. Confirming that Waldheim would make the trip, the spokesman said the date will be arranged through normal diplomatic channels. Cambodia has been accused of widespread violations of the human rights of its citizens. [Chicago Tribune]
- Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin said he finds it "absolutely intolerable" that the United States refers to East Jerusalem as "occupied territory." He told a press conference before leaving for New York that "Eastern Jerusalem is part of Jerusalem and Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The United States should recognize this fact." Begin said he will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in New York Thursday to discuss the issue. [Chicago Tribune]
- Cosmonauts Vladimir Kavalyonok, 36, and Alexander Ivanchenko, 38, left the orbiting Salyut 6 Soviet space station which has been their home for a record 129 days. They transferred to the Soyuz 31 craft docked to the station to prepare to descend to Earth, Moscow Radio reported. The cosmonauts topped by 43 days the mark set by a previous Salyut 6 crew. [Chicago Tribune]
- Three battalions of Ugandan troops, invading with tanks and heavy artillery on the orders of President Idi Amin, have "annexed" 710 square miles of neighboring Tanzania, the Uganda radio reported. Tanzania conceded Ugandans had taken the territory but vowed to deliver a "devastating blow" to the Ugandan forces and said Amin and his invaders "must be taught a lesson that they and their supporters will never forget." [Chicago Tribune]
- Japanese consider the United States the "most trustworthy country," a survey shows. But Americans rank 11 other nations over Japan in trustworthiness, with more than 61 percent of them putting Canada at the top of the list. In Japan, 40.8 percent of those polled ranked the U.S. as "most trustworthy" and 24 per cent listed China as tops in trustworthiness. [Chicago Tribune]
- Ten of the 15 survivors of a U.S. Navy plane that was ditched after an engine caught fire told of their 12 hour ordeal waiting in two rafts for rescue in the stormy and frigid seas of the North Pacific. They were rescued by a Soviet trawler, given medical aid, and taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Khabarovsk. The 10 and the 3 dead crewmen will be flown to Japan. [Chicago Tribune]
- Queen Elizabeth, addressing Parliament, said the British [Labor] government's main economic effort will be to overcome "the evils of inflation and unemployment." [Chicago Tribune]
- A strong earthquake occurred today in the Soviet Union, the United States Geological Survey reported. Survey officials said the agency's earthquake information center in Golden, Colo., detected the quake in the area of Tashkent in the south-central Soviet Union. [Chicago Tribune]
- Cleveland's controversial Mayor Dennis Kucinich says he may have to cut his workday from 18 to 16 hours after being released from a hospital where he was treated for a stomach ulcer. The 32-year-old mayor barely kept his job last August when he survived a recall vote by only 236 ballots. Asked if he thought the ulcer may hinder his political career, Kucinich answered: "I'm very resilient. It's up to the people of Cleveland and the Lord." [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 827.79 (+35.34, +4.46%)
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* |
| October 31, 1978 | 792.45 | 93.15 | 42.72 |
| October 30, 1978 | 811.85 | 95.06 | 59.48 |
| October 27, 1978 | 806.05 | 94.59 | 40.36 |
| October 26, 1978 | 821.12 | 96.03 | 31.99 |
| October 25, 1978 | 830.21 | 97.31 | 31.38 |
| October 24, 1978 | 832.55 | 97.49 | 28.88 |
| October 23, 1978 | 839.66 | 98.18 | 36.09 |
| October 20, 1978 | 838.01 | 97.95 | 43.67 |
| October 19, 1978 | 846.41 | 99.33 | 31.81 |
| October 18, 1978 | 859.67 | 100.49 | 32.97 |