News stories from Thursday March 15, 1979

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

A drive for a balanced budget is gaining in Congress. The House approved a new increase in the debt limit, but only after defeating a challenge to the rise in a vote of 201 to 199. The new limit is $830 billion, or $32 billion over the present ceiling. The close vote served notice that a spending cut remains a major issue on Capitol Hill.Government spending will be higher than the amounts projected by President Carter in his budget in January, the budget office said. But it added that prospective deficits had decreased because of inflation and markedly higher employment. [New York Times] Radioactive blocks may be imperiling Americans in perhaps 100,000 houses and schools in the Southeast. The concrete blocks were made from radioactive slag sold by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The government-owned utility, the Environmental Protection Agency and health agencies of Alabama and three neighboring states have placed detectors in 14 houses and 3 schools in Alabama to determine whether low-level radiation in the blocks poses a health hazard. [New York Times] Anti-inflation was pressed by the Carter administration. Alfred Kahn, the President's top inflation fighter, said that President Carter would push for more rapid and drastic deregulation of the trucking industry if a new contract agreement between the truckers and Teamsters exceeded his wage guidelines. [New York Times] L. Patrick Gray may not be tried on charges that he ordered F.B.I. agents to make illegal entries at private residences and offices. Government prosecutors expressed doubt in open court that the former acting bureau director would face trial. [New York Times] A family survived more than a month after their sailboat ran aground and broke up on a remote island off southeast Alaska. A father and his three teenage children withstood continuing sub-freezing temperatures without boots and with little to eat during the ordeal before their rescue and treatment for severe frostbite. [New York Times] Adela Holzer was convicted of defrauding scores of investors of more than $97,000 for international ventures that were fictitious. The former investment entrepreneur and theatrical producer, who was the toast of Broadway four years ago, was found guilty by a jury in Manhattan. [New York Times] The U.S., seeking support for Egypt, is sending a top delegation to Saudi Arabia and Jordan to try to gain their backing for an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and to avert threatened Arab economic and oil boycotts against Egypt. The mission will be headed by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the President's national security adviser, and will include his son Chip. Egypt's cabinet approved unanimously the draft of a treaty with Israel and Cairo officials prepared requests for increases in economic and military aid from Washington.Intense U.S. efforts in negotiations to establish Palestinian autonomy on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip was predicted by Foreign Minister Dayan. The Israeli official said he expected Washington to seek to persuade Jordan, and later Syria, to join talks for a comprehensive peace. [New York Times] Iranian officials sought the execution of former Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveida during the second night session of the trial of the deposed Shah's longtime chief aide. Meanwhile, the revolutionary authorities announced that Ralph Schoenman, the human rights activist, had been expelled and that Kate Millett, the feminist, who has been meeting with Iranian women, was also being expelled. [New York Times] Pope John Paul II proclaimed the aim of the Roman Catholic Church to serve more effectively as the "guardian of freedom" in a world where he said injustice and declining moral values threatened "all people of good will." The Pontiff's first encyclical letter reflected his conservative views on theology and his concern for social and economic suffering. [New York Times] Moscow is moving Vietnamese troops and military equipment from southern Vietnam and occupied sectors of Cambodia to northern Vietnam in a major air and sea operation, according to sources in Thailand. The transfer began soon after the Chinese invaded northern Vietnam on Feb. 17, and has increased since then. [New York Times] A pledge of democracy for Brazil was made by its new President, Gen. Joao Figueiredo. In an inaugural ceremony, he promised reforms to allow some freedom of expression. He is the fifth military chief of state since the armed forces seized power in a 1964 coup. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 847.02 (+1.65, +0.20%)
S&P Composite: 99.86 (+0.15, +0.15%)
Arms Index: 0.53

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	773	17.78
Declines	602	7.33
Unchanged	482	4.26
Total Volume		29.37

* 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*
March 14, 1979	845.37	99.71	24.65
March 13, 1979	846.93	99.84	31.17
March 12, 1979	844.68	99.67	25.75
March 9, 1979	842.86	99.54	33.41
March 8, 1979	844.85	99.58	32.00
March 7, 1979	834.29	98.44	28.94
March 6, 1979	826.58	97.87	24.50
March 5, 1979	827.36	98.06	25.96
March 2, 1979	815.75	96.97	23.13
March 1, 1979	815.84	96.90	23.84