News stories from Wednesday December 28, 1977

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

The replacement of Arthur Burns as chairman since 1969 of the Federal Reserve Board by G. William Miller, chairman of Textron, a diversified manufacturing company, was announced by President Carter. The surprise decision takes effect Feb. 1. Dr. Burns, a fiscal conservative and vocal critic of the administration's economic policies, praised the appointment. [New York Times] The November trade deficit was $2.08 billion last month compared with a record $3.09 billion in October, the Commerce Department reported, ascribing this mostly to a drop in imports due to the dock strike against containerized shipping at Atlantic and Gulf ports. Its chief economist said an earlier estimate of a 1977 trade deficit of about $27 billion was a reasonably good one. [New York Times] Stock prices were lifted slightly by selective buying late in the session. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 4 points, then recovered to close unchanged at 829.70, The market value index of the American Stock Exchange, buoyed in part by higher prices for some natural-resource issues, set a new record of 126.43. [New York Times] A congressional study disputes the notion that taxpayers in the Northeastern states are shortchanged by the federal government in favor of the Sunbelt states. The General Accounting Office study, apparently using a different way of calculating federal benefits that is more narrowly focused than previous efforts in this field, says New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania got more per-capita aid in 1969-75 than any other region. [New York Times] Four correspondents told a House subcommittee that they deemed any relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency that was beyond an exchange of information was a violation of professional ethics. They also agreed that the new C.I.A. directive barring any contractual relationship between that agency and United States journalists was unlikely to allay suspicions abroad that American correspondents, like those of many other nations, sometimes performed intelligence duties on the side. [New York Times] The next Democratic chairman is John White, a shrewd and gregarious Texan in the mold of former chairman Robert Strauss. Announcing the appointment to succeed former Governor Kenneth Curtis of Maine, who is stepping down, President Carter said the 1978 congressional elections would be a good challenge to Mr. White. He helped hold Texas for Mr. Carter's ticket in the presidential election and is serving as his Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. [New York Times] Addressing the Israeli Parliament, Prime Minister Menachem Begin defended his peace plan and insisted that Israeli forces must remain in the occupied Arab territories of the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip. He said the next move in the Israeli-Arab peace initiative was up to Egypt but made no criticism of President Anwar Sadat. [New York Times] President Sadat urged Israel to reconsider its Middle Eastern policy in the light of the new climate created by his visit and talks with Mr. Begin. He said it was for the Israeli Prime Minister to tell his people to do this. He reiterated that Egypt would accept no plan that would leave Israeli troops stationed on the West Bank of the Jordan River. [New York Times] President Carter said in a televised interview on the eve of his nine-day trip to six countries that Mr. Begin had taken "a long step forward" in offering Palestinians self-rule. But he said the United States did not agree with President Sadat's view that the Palestinians should have an independent state. On domestic affairs, he conceded for the first time that he might not be able to submit a balanced federal budget before the next election. [New York Times] The growing Soviet and Cuban role in Ethiopia's conflict with Somalia is doubly frustrating to Carter administration officials because of failure to persuade the two countries to reduce their military involvement or to stimulate an energetic effort by African countries to get a cease-fire. Some officials believe that if the Russians seem to gain a foothold, Soviet-American relations might be affected. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 829.70 (0.00, 0.00%)
S&P Composite: 94.75 (+0.06, +0.06%)
Arms Index: 0.86

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	719	8.29
Declines	663	6.59
Unchanged	535	4.75
Total Volume		19.63

* 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*
December 27, 1977	829.70	94.69	16.75
December 23, 1977	829.87	94.69	20.08
December 22, 1977	821.81	93.80	28.10
December 21, 1977	813.93	93.05	24.51
December 20, 1977	806.22	92.50	23.25
December 19, 1977	807.95	92.69	21.15
December 16, 1977	815.32	93.40	20.27
December 15, 1977	817.83	93.55	21.61
December 14, 1977	822.68	94.03	22.11
December 13, 1977	815.23	93.56	19.19