News stories from Thursday April 7, 1977

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

Led by food and farm products, the Labor Department's Wholesale Price Index rose 1.1 percent in March, the sharpest rise since October 1975. Industrial commodities, another important component of the index, rose eight-tenths of 1 percent in March, their fourth consecutive rise. [New York Times] "Nonessential" uses of fluorocarbons as spray can propellants would eventually be banned under regulations being drafted by two federal agencies as a means of preserving the ozone layer in the earth's atmosphere. The regulations are scheduled to be issued by April 26 by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, but they would not become effective for at least several months. They would affect mostly hair sprays, deodorants and antiperspirants. [New York Times] Chain store sales were up in March, and were even better than the two good preceding months. The March sales gains among 10 of the 12 principal chains ran from 3.5 percent to 41.9 percent. The companies that reported losses were Vornado Inc., operator of the Two Guys discount stores, and the Levitz Furniture Corporation. [New York Times] Stock prices advanced moderately, but in trading that was dull. They did not, however, reflect concern by investors over the Labor Department's report of a sharp climb in the Wholesale Price Index. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 4.15 points to 918.88. The biggest loser and most actively traded issue was Bally Manufacturing, a leading producer of slot machines and other gambling equipment. [New York Times] The Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company said it would contest a suit in the Federal District Court in Washington by the Securities and Exchange Commission that charges that Schlitz made at least $3 million in undisclosed and illegal payments to induce customers to buy Schlitz products. Schlitz admitted last year that it had participated in questionable marketing practices. Schlitz is apparently challenging the agency's so-called standard of materiality. The company said there is "no reason to believe that such payments were material" to its financial position. [New York Times] A five count indictment against a former Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisor, John J. Kearney, was returned by a federal grand jury in New York. Mr. Kearney, believed to be the first F.B.I. agent ever to be indicted on a felony charge, was charged with conspiracy, obstruction of correspondence and unlawful wiretapping in his search for Weather Underground fugitives, a terrorist group believed to be responsible for numerous bombings. [New York Times] New York and other large cities with financial problems would be able to borrow from an urban reconstruction bank that the Carter administration proposes to establish. The proposal was disclosed by Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal. He compared the concept to that of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, established in the New Deal period to aid failing businesses, or to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Both banks provide loans not otherwise available from the usual lenders. [New York Times] Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who is in charge of Israel's caretaker government, withdrew as the Labor Party's candidate for the prime ministership in the May 17 elections. His withdrawal was announced following Israeli newspaper reports that Mr. Rabin had lied about the amounts he kept in bank accounts in Washington. Such deposits are illegal under Israeli currency laws. [New York Times] Britain's delegate at the United Nations received an apology from Andrew Young, the United States representative, who had said in a television interview that Britain was "a little chicken" on racial questions and had institutionalized racism "more than anyone else in the history of the earth." Mr. Young, in a letter to Ivor Richard, said he regretted his "excesses." [New York Times] With a view toward resuming the discussions on a treaty limiting strategic arms, the Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, just back from Moscow, met at his request with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in Washington. The meeting was unannounced and reporters learned of it when Mr. Dobrynin's limousine was seen in the State Department garage. Paul Warnke, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the chief strategic arms negotiator, told reporters that the administration was concerned about the public outcry that followed the Soviet rejection of the American arms proposals and there was a desire for "immediate negotiations with the Soviet Union which would not be public." [New York Times] West Germany's chief prosecutor, who had directed proceedings against an anarchist group, was shot to death by assassins who attacked his automobile with blasts from a submachine gun. The prosecutor, Siegfried Buback, 57 years old, prepared charges against the Baader-Meinhof gang, which has been on trial since May 1975 on charges of setting off two bombs that killed four American servicemen in 1972. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 918.88 (+4.15, +0.45%)
S&P Composite: 98.35 (+0.44, +0.45%)
Arms Index: 0.89

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	779	8.56
Declines	580	5.66
Unchanged	504	3.04
Total Volume		17.26

* 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*
April 6, 1977	914.73	97.91	16.66
April 5, 1977	916.14	98.01	18.33
April 4, 1977	915.56	98.23	16.25
April 1, 1977	927.36	99.21	17.05
March 31, 1977	919.13	98.42	16.51
March 30, 1977	921.21	98.54	18.81
March 29, 1977	932.01	99.69	17.03
March 28, 1977	926.11	99.00	16.71
March 25, 1977	928.86	99.06	16.55
March 24, 1977	935.67	99.70	19.65