News stories from Tuesday January 11, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 3, that a suburb may refuse to change zoning restrictions whose practical effect is to block the construction of racially integrated housing for persons of low and moderate income, unless it can be shown that the zoning had an intent or purpose to discriminate. [New York Times]
- Griffin Bell defended his role on school desegregation in Georgia two decades ago at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination as Attorney General. As counsel to then-Gov. Ernest Vandiver, he agreed his actions might have contributed to delay, but the law was not defied and violence was avoided. [New York Times]
- President Ford, in a White House interview shortly before leaving office, was at peace with his fate, acknowledging mixed feelings and disappointment at yielding the burden of office next week. He described the personal torment involved in the heritage of the Nixon administration. [New York Times]
- The Carter administration will start off at a moderate legislative pace, rather than flooding Congress with proposals, according to Stuart Eizenstat, the President-elect's aide on domestic affairs. The economic stimulus package will have priority, he said, along with creation of a new energy department and a request for authority to reorganize executive agencies, including the White House staff. [New York Times]
- A bill to restore the death penalty in New Jersey was approved by the state Senate after an emotional two-hour debate. A similar bill won overwhelming Assembly approval in November, but the approval of Governor Byrne, who earlier in the day had delivered his annual State of the State message to both houses, remained uncertain. [New York Times]
- Cyrus Vance, testifying at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on his nomination by Jimmy Carter as Secretary of State in the new administration, said that in hindsight it was a mistake to intervene in Vietnam. He promised a policy of openness and proposed a policy that would let Congress influence the President's decisions on undertaking specific covert activities. Committee members were friendly during and after the three-hour session. [New York Times]
- Charles Schultze, chairman-designate of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Carter administration, told the Senate Banking Committee there was "no substance to the fear" that the Carter program for stimulating the economy might increase the country's inflation rate. [New York Times]
- Capital spending will go up this year, the Department of Commerce said. It reported that the total of projected business expenditures for capital improvements and expansion would be $135 billion, an increase of about 11.3 percent over 1976. [New York Times]
- International Paper Company's reporting of disappointing fourth-quarter profits touched off a selling wave on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones industrial average, of which the world's largest papermaking organization is a component, tumbled 10.22 points to 976.65 at the closing -- a decline of 28 points so far in 1977. Credit markets continued their recent pattern of gyration ending in a moderately lower close. [New York Times]
- Henry Ford II quit the Ford Foundation's board of trustees with a letter saying the giant philanthropic body was blurring its image, spreading itself too thin and developing a staff short on appreciation of the economic system that made it possible. He suggested that the trustees and staff examine how the foundation might act most wisely to strengthen and improve the workings of that system. [New York Times]
- The first loan to Vietnam by the International Monetary Fund was announced in Washington, apparently with the consent of the United States, which has twice vetoed Vietnam's admission to the United Nations. The loan, amounting to the equivalent of $35 million, is to meet Vietnam's shortfall in exports in the year ended June 30, 1976. [New York Times]
- Abu Daoud, the Palestinian militant arrested in Paris on suspicion of responsibility for the 1972 killings in Munich of members of the Israeli Olympic team, was released after a swift judicial hearing and flew to Algeria. The court rejected requests from Israel and West Germany that he be detained pending formal extradition proceedings. It apparently accepted his lawyers' argument that Israel had no right to file such a request and that the West German request had not been properly formulated. Within hours Israel recalled its ambassador from Paris and the West German government officially deplored the court's decision. [New York Times]
- Britain has a "healthy start on 1977," Prime Minister James Callaghan told the House of Commons, following Monday's agreement by central bankers in Basel to provide a "safety net" for sterling balances. Senior British officials are in a buoyant mood. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 976.65 (-10.22, -1.04%)
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* |
| January 10, 1977 | 986.87 | 105.20 | 20.86 |
| January 7, 1977 | 983.13 | 105.01 | 21.72 |
| January 6, 1977 | 979.89 | 105.02 | 23.92 |
| January 5, 1977 | 978.06 | 104.76 | 25.01 |
| January 4, 1977 | 987.87 | 105.70 | 22.74 |
| January 3, 1977 | 999.75 | 107.00 | 21.28 |
| December 31, 1976 | 1004.65 | 107.46 | 19.17 |
| December 30, 1976 | 999.09 | 106.88 | 23.70 |
| December 29, 1976 | 994.93 | 106.34 | 21.91 |
| December 28, 1976 | 1000.08 | 106.77 | 25.79 |