News stories from Thursday March 9, 1978

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

Miners were ordered back to work under a Taft-Hartley Act injunction obtained by the Carter administration. It was the first time the government has resorted to the controversial injunction since 1972. Although President Carter maintained at a news conference his belief that the law would be obeyed, reports from the coal fields suggested that many miners would ignore it. There appeared to be no intention on the part of the government to enforce the law before Monday, then all the mine operators and union locals are expected to receive copies of the order. [New York Times] The sharpest price increase at the wholesale level in more than three years was reported for February by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The prices were up by 1.1 percent, led by soaring food prices, which were up 2.9 percent in the month, the largest increase since 4.1 percent was reported in November 1974. [New York Times] Further economic expansion this year "at a moderate pace," was predicted by G. William Miller, the Federal Reserve Board's new chairman. He gave the forecast in the central bank's regular quarterly testimony to the House Banking Committee. He said that inflation remains "disturbingly high" and requires stronger federal policies to get it under better control. He disclosed that the Federal Reserve's key Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy, took steps at its meeting in February that could lead to somewhat higher interest rates. [New York Times] Most stock prices rose in cautious trading influenced by conflicting economic developments at home and abroad. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of more than 8 to 5. But the Dow Jones industrial average, registering small changes throughout the session, dipped 0.87 point to 750. President Carter endorsed the deregulation of natural gas prices in an apparent reversal of policy. [New York Times] The pullout of Somali forces from Ethiopia's Ogaden region has been agreed to by Somalia, President Carter announced at his news conference. He said that President Mohammed Siad Barre of Somalia had informed him of the decision Wednesday night, and he expressed the hope that the Somali withdrawal would lead to a pullout of the Cuban and Soviet forces that have been supporting Ethiopia in the fight over control of the Ogaden region. The announcement culminated weeks of urgent private diplomacy, in which ending the fighting in Ogaden and an improvement in deteriorating American-Soviet relations were the objectives. [New York Times] President Carter took issue with Prime Minister Menachem Begin's controversial interpretation of the United Nations Resolution 242 at his news conference. He said that a refusal to abide by the resolution calling for Israel's withdrawal from occupied Arab territories would be "a serious blow to the prospects of peace and a complete reversal of the policy of the Israeli government."President Carter is "a question mark" in Jewish eyes and Zbigniew Brzezinski, the President's security adviser, is distrusted, Rabbi Alexander Schindler, a leader of the organized Jewish community in the United States said. He met at the White House with Mr. Carter's top political aides to report on the mood of American Jews before Prime Minister Begin's visit to Washington next week. [New York Times] Spain is facing what may be its gravest economic crisis since the civil war. The country's newly democratic politics are taking on a sharper edge, with growing signs of polarization between the left and right. The failure of Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez's minority government to gain the confidence of the financial establishment is adding to the problems. [New York Times] A reorganization plan for the Penn Central Transportation Company was approved in Federal District Court in Philadelphia. Judge John Fullam approved the plan, bringing the nation's biggest corporate bankruptcy closer to an end. [New York Times] Emergency action toward replacing 150,000 sets of freight car wheels similar to those on cars involved in several recent derailments was recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board. One of the derailments killed nine persons and injured 50 in Waverly, Tenn. [New York Times] A Eurasian curlew was reported sighted on Martha's Vineyard, touching off a flurry of excitement in the bird-watching world. The two-foot-high wading bird usually spends winters on the beaches of North Africa and has been seen on this continent only twice before. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 750.00 (-0.87, -0.12%)
S&P Composite: 87.89 (+0.05, +0.06%)
Arms Index: 1.04

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	849	10.89
Declines	480	6.38
Unchanged	498	4.55
Total Volume		21.82

* 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 8, 1978	750.87	87.84	22.04
March 7, 1978	746.79	87.36	19.90
March 6, 1978	742.72	86.90	17.23
March 3, 1978	747.31	87.45	20.12
March 2, 1978	746.45	87.32	20.29
March 1, 1978	743.33	87.19	21.01
February 28, 1978	742.12	87.04	19.75
February 27, 1978	748.35	87.72	20.00
February 24, 1978	756.24	88.49	22.51
February 23, 1978	750.95	87.64	18.73