News stories from Friday April 21, 1978

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

Two people died aboard a Seoul-bound South Korean airliner that strayed over Soviet territory and was forced to land on a frozen lake about 280 miles south of Murmansk, Soviet officials said. The Soviet Union offered to let a United States civilian plane fly the survivors, apparently 108 passengers and crew members, out from Murmansk. The Russians gave no explanation why the airliner had veered hundreds of miles off course and landed on ice instead of an airfield. Soviet fighters had intercepted the plane, official statements said, but they did not say they had fired at it. [New York Times] A tax cut without tax reform was one of several possibilities discussed by President Carter and six liberal Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee members said afterward that Mr. Carter was still hoping to rescue some of his revenue-raising tax reform proposals, but that he was also aware that he might have to accept tax cuts without revisions of the tax code. Representative Richard Gephardt, one of the members at the meeting, said: "They're clearly trying to put together a fallback that would be tax cut only." [New York Times] A 15-cent stamp for all first class mail was tentatively voted by the Postal Rate Commission, which, contrary to its reputation for a lack of independence, went against the Carter administration's wishes. The administration had proposed that the rate for first class mail, except for business letters, be kept at 13 cents, but that the rate for business mail be raised to 16 cents. The administration's proposal was recommended to the commission, a private agency, by the United States Postal Service. A member of the commission said that the vote of 3 to 1 would likely stand. [New York Times] An accord on natural gas pricing was reached by House and Senate energy conferees, a crucial step toward approval of President Carter's energy program. It provides for expanded regulation of natural gas at higher prices, to be followed by deregulation of new supplies in 1985. Secretary of Energy James Schlesinger, who had a key role in negotiating the agreement that ended months of bickering, said it was a "splendid legislative moment" and that the President would "absolutely" support it. [New York Times] Gas shares moved higher after House and Senate energy conferees announced a tentative agreement on natural gas pricing. Trading on the Big Board was generally brisk -- the volume totaled 31.54 million shares, but this still impressive figure was overshadowed by the 43.23 million shares traded Thursday, the exchange's fourth busiest trading day. [New York Times] Betty Ford disclosed another problem in a statement issued to reporters at the Long Beach Naval Hospital in California, where she has been a patient since April 11 in a special ward devoted to the rehabilitation of people addicted to drugs and alcohol. The former First Lady said that she had learned "I am not only addicted to the medication I have been taking for my arthritis, but also to alcohol." [New York Times] A cutback in troops scheduled to be withdrawn from South Korea this year was announced by President Carter. He took the move because of congressional inaction on a compensatory aid package for the Seoul government that would offset the impact of the pullout. One American combat battalion of about 800 men and 2,600 support personnel will be withdrawn this year. The withdrawal of two other battalions will be postponed until 1979. [New York Times] Progress in American-Soviet talks on a new strategic arms agreement was reported by both sides in Moscow. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko ended two days of talks. Mr. Vance will go to the Kremlin for a meeting with Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader. Mr. Vance told reporters that the atmosphere during this visit was vastly improved over his last trip in March 1977. [New York Times] Paintings worth more than $1 million were stolen from the Pitti Palace museum in Florence. The thieves broke through a skylight and took the Rubens masterpiece "The Three Graces" and nine other Flemish works. The police believed that the thieves had been commissioned to steal only certain paintings, since they left priceless works by Raphael and Titian undisturbed. The burglary occurred between inspection tours by guards. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 812.80 (-1.74, -0.21%)
S&P Composite: 94.34 (-0.20, -0.21%)
Arms Index: 0.95

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	724	12.94
Declines	715	12.09
Unchanged	465	6.51
Total Volume		31.54

* 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*
April 20, 1978	814.54	94.54	43.23
April 19, 1978	808.04	93.86	35.06
April 18, 1978	803.27	93.43	38.97
April 17, 1978	810.12	94.45	63.49
April 14, 1978	795.13	92.92	52.28
April 13, 1978	775.21	90.98	31.58
April 12, 1978	766.29	90.11	26.22
April 11, 1978	770.18	90.25	24.30
April 10, 1978	773.65	90.49	25.74
April 7, 1978	769.58	90.17	25.17