News stories from Tuesday February 22, 1977

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

President Carter's budget proposal for the fiscal year 1978 projected a $57.7 billion deficit to make room for his economic stimulus package and a greater emphasis on energy and domestic social programs than in President Ford's budget, which envisaged a $47 billion deficit. [New York Times] Four men arrested in the Watergate break-in have accepted a $200,000 out-of-court settlement from former President Nixon's 1972 campaign fund. The four, members of the Cuban exile community in Miami, had brought suit charging they had been misled into thinking they were acting with government sanction. [New York Times] The Supreme Court agreed to decide the constitutionality of state university admissions programs giving special preferences to increased minority-group enrollment, called "affirmative action" by proponents and "reverse discrimination" by critics. [New York Times] The Carter budget proposal would cut $200 million from the government's controversial fast breeder reactor program. Its suggested revisions showed a shift away from developing nuclear energy and toward conservation of energy, coal, and a faster build-up of a strategic reserve of crude oil to protect the country against possible future foreign embargoes. [New York Times] Stock prices closed slightly lower in slow trading, with Dow Jones industrials down 0.33 points to end the session at 939.91. Credit markets declined again sharply and the federal funds rate rose as high as 4⅞ percent. [New York Times] A guilty plea to 19 criminal fraud counts in land sales at its Pueblo West subdivision was entered in a Colorado court by McCulloch Properties, a land-development subsidiary of McCulloch Oil. It agreed to pay $16 million in money and land for water lines, roads, sewers and other improvements. The land company accepted responsibility for promises made by its salesmen about improvements. [New York Times] Mexican coffee growers in impoverished villages are beginning to benefit from high American prices for their product, earning six or seven times more than in 1974. The increase in world coffee prices is important, but for them the action of the state-run Coffee Institute in reducing profit margins of middlemen may be almost as significant. [New York Times] Paul Warnke won an overwhelming vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recommending his confirmation as President Carter's chief arms control negotiator and director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. At the same moment he was undergoing a grueling and wide-ranging interrogation by the Senate Armed Services Committee, whose members seemed intent on finding inconsistencies between his present and past statements about arms control. Senator Henry Jackson. Democrat of Washington, said he was questioning his credibility and viability as a negotiator. [New York Times] An Italian researcher's finding that the main chemical used in plastic food wraps can cause cancer in mice prompted Drs. Cuyler Hammond and Irving Selikoff to call for closer scrutiny of the ingredient, vinylidine chloride, and related chemicals. The researcher, Dr. Cesare Maltoni, earlier did pioneer work pointing to another plastics chemical, vinyl chloride, later proved to be a cancer hazard to man. Dow Chemical Company, the leading maker of saran, questioned the significance of his new finding. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 939.91 (-0.33, -0.04%)
S&P Composite: 100.49 (0.00, 0.00%)
Arms Index: 0.92

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	670	6.85
Declines	780	7.33
Unchanged	469	3.55
Total Volume		17.73

* 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 18, 1977	940.24	100.49	18.04
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