News stories from Friday February 18, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Consumer prices jumped 0.8 percent in January, the Labor Department said, for a 9.6 percent annual rate of increase. Rises in the prices of food and fuel in the severely cold weather last month were held responsible. The Consumer Price Index had an average monthly increase of only 0.3 percent over the final quarter of 1976. Prices rose 4.8 percent over all of last year. The January index may still be in worse shape, the Labor Department said, because it did not reflect the "full" impact of the frigid weather. [New York Times]
- The economy, as measured by the Gross National Product, grew even more slowly than originally estimated in the last three months of 1976. It was the smallest expansion since the first quarter of 1975, the Commerce Department said. [New York Times]
- Stock prices in New York opened lower and generally declined throughout the session, the dullest in two and a half months. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 940.24, down 3.49 points. The market apparently was affected by government economic reports that fed fears of inflation. [New York Times]
- A Justice Department report said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation's inquiry into the murder in 1968 of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was "thoroughly, honestly and successfully" conducted and that the best available evidence suggested that James Earl Ray, who was convicted of the murder, acted alone. The department, completing an eight-month review of the F.B.I.'s part in the case, concluded that the bureau may have had grounds for starting a security investigation of Dr. King, but that its six-year surveillance was clearly unwarranted. [New York Times]
- The Carter administration is proposing that the Community Development Program, established in 1974 by the Housing and Urban Development Department to provide financial aid to municipalities across the country, be expanded and that priority be given to the neediest cities. The $3.2 billion of appropriations for the current fiscal year would be increased to $4 billion in the fiscal year beginning next October. President Ford had proposed spending $3.5 billion in the next fiscal year. The revision is one of the changes being proposed by the Carter administration in the Ford budget. [New York Times]
- Casino gambling in New York would become legal under legislation being drafted by the State Department of Commerce, in an attempt to remove a constitutional ban. The motive is to make New York competitive with New Jersey, which recently approved gambling houses in Atlantic City. "If New York doesn't do the same in its resort areas, we are going to lose a lot of hotel jobs and tourist business, and New York can't afford more losses from its economy," said John Dyson, the Commerce Commissioner. [New York Times]
- The New York Jets will continue to play their football games at Shea Stadium in Queens at least for the 1977 season under an agreement reached with Mayor Beame and the New York Mets, the principal tenant at the city-owned stadium. The Jets proposed moving to the New Jersey Meadowlands complex. [New York Times]
- "The decision is final," Transportation Secretary Brock Adams said of his approval of Manhattan's Westway project despite a critical report by the Environmental Protection Agency. "I have found nothing in that report that had not been addressed and weighed in the environmental impact statement of Westway." [New York Times]
- President Carter's letter to Andrei Sakharov was defended by the administration following a warning from Moscow that official American expressions of sympathy and support could hurt relations with Washington. Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin called on Acting Secretary of State Arthur Hartman to deliver what a State Department spokesman said was an expression of the Soviet government's "displeasure" at the administration's statements on human rights in the Soviet Union. [New York Times]
- The Carter administration also sought to minimize the possible impact on its diplomatic efforts in the Middle East of published reports that the Central Intelligence Agency had made secret payments to King Hussein of Jordan for 20 years. The White House issued a statement praising the King as an "outstanding national leader" who had "played a constructive role in reducing tensions in the Middle East." [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 940.24 (-3.49, -0.37%)
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 17, 1977 | 943.73 | 100.92 | 19.04 |
| February 16, 1977 | 948.30 | 101.50 | 23.43 |
| February 15, 1977 | 944.32 | 101.04 | 21.62 |
| 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 |