News stories from Wednesday February 23, 1977

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

President Carter told reporters he had found nothing illegal or improper when he analyzed recent "controversial revelations," referring to secret funds to friendly foreign leaders. He said that disclosures of such operations could be "extremely damaging to our relationship with other nations, to the potential security of our country." [New York Times] A Senate committee voted 9 to 3 to restore all but about $20 million of the $154 million in federal public works funds recently slashed from allotments for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The size of the margin seemed large enough to hold up when the bill reaches the floor of the Senate. [New York Times] Mr. Carter called it "understandable" that producers of natural gas waiting for higher prices should withhold at least some of it from the market. He suggested that if the government could let the oil companies know in a predictable way what federal policy and prices would be, they would be much less likely to withhold oil and natural gas. [New York Times] The Federal Reserve Board chairman, Arthur Burns, said the business community showed a "certain nervousness" about the size and growth of the federal deficit and the continuation and possible intensification of inflation. Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, he disagreed with President Carter's talk of an incomes policy to slow wage and price increases because of businessmen's fears of price controls. [New York Times] Stock prices declined moderately in slow trading, with the Dow Jones industrial average down 1.66 points, closing at 938.25. Credit markets moved toward higher interest rates and lower bond prices. [New York Times] Air fares could have been cut by nearly $2 billion a year between 1969 and 1974 and airline operating costs could have been reduced, the General Accounting Office has calculated, if the government had not controlled fares. The congressional investigating arm recommended that Congress and the Civil Aeronautics Board allow price competition among airlines and make it easier for newcomers. [New York Times] The Supreme Court was unanimous in upholding federal authority to set industry-wide regulations for countrywide application limiting the amount of pollutants that may be dumped into water. This had been challenged by Du Pont and other chemical companies. The court held that the 1972 statute gave the Environmental Protection Agency that power. [New York Times] President Carter's former pastor in Plains, Ga., the Rev. Bruce Edwards, who resigned his pastorate there on Sunday, has adopted a 1-year-old non-Caucasian child. Billy Carter, the President's brother, said that this was the real source of the friction. [New York Times] President Carter said at his news conference that he wanted to make American concern for human rights felt around the world and never intended to single out the Soviet Union as the only major transgressor. He recalled his recent remarks about political prisoners in South Korea, Cuba and other Latin American countries and said recent actions in Uganda had "disgusted the entire civilized world." His statement was seen as a gesture to ease friction with the Soviet Union, which has complained that United States comments were interference in internal affairs. [New York Times] Yitzhak Rabin won renomination as Israel's Prime Minister by only 41 votes out of nearly 3,000 cast by delegates of the governing Labor Party, edging out his challenger, the Defense Minister, Shimon Peres. [New York Times] Signs of unrest in Uganda increased as President Idi Amin acknowledged to visiting Western reporters that dissident soldiers tried to mutiny on Saturday and Tuesday night. He said seven were killed and order quickly restored. But refugees from Uganda arriving in Kenya and Tanzania told of widespread killings in the purge of students, soldiers and policemen belonging to the Lango and Acholi tribes which are predominantly Christian. [New York Times] Rhodesian changes enabling blacks to buy businesses, factories and farms in previously all-white areas, while leaving other facets of segregation untouched, were announced by Prime Minister Ian Smith, moving on his own constitutional plan. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 938.25 (-1.66, -0.18%)
S&P Composite: 100.19 (-0.30, -0.30%)
Arms Index: 1.11

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	609	5.95
Declines	796	8.61
Unchanged	477	3.68
Total Volume		18.24

* 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 22, 1977	939.91	100.49	17.73
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