News stories from Tuesday May 10, 1977

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

A crucial vote of 261 to 149 in the House of Representatives beat back an amendment that would have scuttled a new formula intended to funnel increased aid for urban development to the older large cities. The bill would expand the Community Development Block Grant program to more than $4 billion a year. Defeat of the California-sponsored amendment apparently cleared the way for passage of the bill tomorrow, while a slightly different version moved out of committee for debate in the Senate. [New York Times] A limited transfer of general Treasury funds to the Social Security system, proposed by the Carter administration for an experimental five-year period, is something the administration would like to make permanent, the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Joseph Califano, told Congress. He said such shifts of funds in years of high unemployment were fundamentally sound. But Representative Al Ullman, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, expressed profound reservations and said that Social Security should not become a welfare program. [New York Times] Deadlock continued between House and Senate conferees over defense needs, threatening the legal deadline on Sunday for setting tentative spending ceilings. Symbolic needs of each chamber, rather than armaments specifics, appeared to be at issue. Another attempt at compromise will be made Wednesday. [New York Times] The White House shifted the time for President Carter's news conference on his European trip on learning that the hour on Thursday night that had been announced in London would conflict with the second in the series of taped television interviews with former President Nixon. [New York Times] Personal income grew 9.1 percent in 1976 for the average American, according to Department of Commerce statistics, well above the inflation rate. In all but five states the gain exceeded the rise in consumer prices. The nationwide per capita income increased from $5,903 to $6,141, reaching a high of $10,175 in Alaska and a national low of $4,575 in Mississippi. [New York Times] April retail sales totaled about $59.4 billion, the Department of Commerce said, about the same as its revised figure for March which was 1 percent above the February level. Auto sales were down 4 percent, seasonally adjusted, from March, but 12 percent ahead of April last year. [New York Times] Stock prices moved up in spite of recent concern over rising interest rates, with Dow Jones industrials closing at 936.14, a gain of 3.03 points, and an 8 to 3 ratio of winners to losers. An analyst linked the advance to the United States Steel announcement that it was holding its price increases to 6 percent, compared with the 7 to 9 percent posted earlier by smaller steel companies. [New York Times] The winter wheat crop will fall only 6 percent below last year's harvest despite the effects of drought and wind erosion, the Agriculture Department estimated. Because of the ample stockpile little impact on food prices is expected. [New York Times] President Carter urged the North Atlantic Treaty allies to respond forcefully to a 12-year Soviet buildup in Europe creating forces "much stronger than needed for any defense purpose." Speaking in London before flying back to the United States, he said the United States would prefer to reduce tensions in Europe by agreements on disarmament and force reduction but said until then military strength must be maintained. [New York Times] Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia said in Jidda that he believed the Palestine Liberation Organization would agree to recognize the state of Israel in an overall Middle East settlement. Reports from Beirut said that the P.L.O. had joined Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria in proposing a Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip as part of such a settlement. [New York Times] Concern about human rights was expressed by President Carter in the London economic conference, but he seemed to have begun taking a more conventional, cautious and diplomatic approach to the subject well in advance of the London meeting. He decided not to answer a second letter from Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet human rights advocate. While reserving the right to speak out, he has not done so since March 1. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 936.14 (+2.24, +0.24%)
S&P Composite: 99.47 (+0.29, +0.29%)
Arms Index: 0.66

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	855	12.51
Declines	578	5.55
Unchanged	470	3.03
Total Volume		21.09

* 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*
May 9, 1977	933.90	99.18	15.23
May 6, 1977	936.74	99.49	19.37
May 5, 1977	943.44	100.11	23.45
May 4, 1977	940.72	99.96	23.33
May 3, 1977	934.19	99.43	21.95
May 2, 1977	931.22	98.93	17.97
April 29, 1977	926.90	98.44	18.33
April 28, 1977	927.32	98.20	18.37
April 27, 1977	923.76	97.96	20.59
April 26, 1977	915.62	97.11	20.04