News stories from Tuesday February 15, 1977

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

An agency empowered to limit health care costs has been proposed by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, according to administration sources. The plan is reported to have the approval of the Office of Management and Budget. On receiving authorization from President Carter, it would require all hospitals to operate on budgets, with prices to be increased only with the new agency's advance approval. Congressional approval would also be needed for this plan to halt inflation in the health industry. [New York Times] Vice President Mondale, who sees his role as the President's across-the-board adviser and troubleshooter, is currently working hard on "effective relations with Congress," he told the New York Times. He said that if Congress added another $5 billion to the President's $31 billion package to stimulate the economy it would be getting close to too much for Mr. Carter to accept. Backing the twin goals of agreement on arms with Moscow and speaking out on human rights, he said some other governments showed greater sensitivity to American pressure on the issue of rights. [New York Times] A warning from the Congressional Budget Office said there might be a conflict among the economic goals of the Carter administration -- a balanced budget, full employment, new social programs -- unless the nation can achieve an unusually high growth rate of more than 5 percent annually. The growth rate for the last quarter was 3 percent. The office said that even then there are serious doubts that the nation can afford the full national health insurance program promised in Mr. Carter's election campaign. [New York Times] A staff investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission has in its preliminary stage been severely critical of both high New York City officials and officials of major banks who coordinated their activities at the outset of the city's financial crisis. No punitive action is contemplated, but the preliminary findings may have significant political ramifications. [New York Times] Stock prices advanced moderately, with Dow Jones industrials gaining 5.99 points to close at 944.32. Corporate bonds advanced but then lost their gains late in the day. [New York Times] The police in New Rochelle began investigating the link between Frederick Cowan, the moving company worker who killed four fellow employees and a policeman before taking his own life, and a militant racist organization, believed to be the National States Rights Party. The Police Commissioner said Mr. Cowan had carried a membership card of a right-wing organization, but withheld its name. [New York Times] President Carter's 18-hour day begins when his telephone rings at 5:30 A.M. He budgets his time and adheres to schedules, designed to give him from 7 to 8:30 A.M. for reading in a little study adjoining the Oval Office, with another reading period at night. There are daily 15-minute meetings with Zbigniew Brzezinski, his national security affairs adviser and Jody Powell, his press secretary. His staff has learned that he does not like surprises in his schedules which are planned to the minute. [New York Times] Sanjay Gandhi, son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India, was added to the governing Congress Party's list of candidates for Parliament in the March elections. He had been in the background since one of her major supporters, Agriculture Minister Jagiivan Ram, resigned two weeks ago from both the cabinet and party with a denunciation of her emergency rule and her son's part in it. Mr. Gandhi will run in one of the party's traditional strongholds. [New York Times] Lillian Carter was warmly cheered in Vikhroli north of Bombay where she was a Peace Corps nurse in a public health clinic 10 years ago. There were warm hugs for old friends, and the reaction of a broad range of Indians was that as a diplomatic mission, the trip by the President's mother to attend the funeral of President Fakhruddin All Ahmed was a triumph. [New York Times] Young black Rhodesians headed for guerrilla training in Zambia are crossing into Botswana, where they are moved into an overcrowded camp and then shipped out almost daily in flights to Zambia. All the volunteers are turned over to Joshua Nkoma's Zimbabwe African People's Union, one of the two nationalist movements with guerrilla armies. [New York Times] Israel's ruling Labor Party is reeling from revelations about diversion of kickback funds into party coffers for the 1973 election and a challenge to its incumbent Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, from within the party's ranks by Shimon Peres, the Defense Minister. Even before these developments, many Israelis found the party flaccid and riddled with cronyism. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 944.32 (+5.99, +0.64%)
S&P Composite: 101.04 (+0.30, +0.30%)
Arms Index: 0.99

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	840	10.74
Declines	602	7.61
Unchanged	462	3.27
Total Volume		21.62

* 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*
February 14, 1977	938.33	100.74	19.23
February 11, 1977	931.52	100.22	20.51
February 10, 1977	937.92	100.82	22.34
February 9, 1977	933.84	100.73	23.64
February 8, 1977	942.24	101.60	24.04
February 7, 1977	946.31	101.89	20.70
February 4, 1977	947.89	101.88	23.13
February 3, 1977	947.14	101.85	23.79
February 2, 1977	952.79	102.36	25.70
February 1, 1977	958.36	102.54	23.70