News stories from Friday April 22, 1977

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

There was no guarantee, President Carter said, that all money collected by the government through the taxes proposed in his energy plan would be returned to consumers through rebates and refunds. "I can't certify today that every nickel of the taxes collected will be refunded to consumers," he said at a news conference. He said that oil companies would not be allowed to profit from an expected increase in the price of gasoline and other fuels. [New York Times] President Carter said he might veto the revamped economic stimulus tax legislation because the Senate, ignoring the President's wishes, kept business tax breaks in the program after rejecting the $50 tax rebate for individuals that had been the program's principal provision. Mr. Carter said at his news conference that he was not in favor of extending bonuses to business when individuals had been deprived of their $50. If the business incentives are in the bill that finally passes, he said, "I'll have to decide whether I'll sign it or not." [New York Times] The Carter administration revised downward its projection for economic growth this year and revised upward its inflation estimate, saying that the cold weather was in part responsible. In figures submitted to Congress by Budget Director Bert Lance, the administration changed its forecast for economic growth this year from 5.4 percent to 4.9 percent. The year-over-year increase in the Consumer Price Index is now estimated at 6.2 percent against the 5.1 percent that had been predicted. Mr. Lance said the administration still expected unemployment to fall below 7 percent by the end of this year. An average rate of 6.4 percent was forecast for next year. [New York Times] Stock prices declined sharply, mainly because investors feared a credit-tightening move by the Federal Reserve Board. Closing lower on the New York Stock Exchange were 1,098 issues, including all of the 15 most actively traded issues. Only the precious metal group remained steady. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 8.73 points to 927.07, bringing its total loss for the week to more than 20 points. [New York Times] Ceilings on increases in hospital charges to be proposed by the administration are directed at saving the government and consumers a total of $2 billion next year. President Carter is expected Monday to send Congress legislation imposing a limit on the yearly increase in charges affecting nearly every hospital in the country. The percentage increases that hospitals would be allowed would be tied to increases in consumer prices. [New York Times] Alex Haley faces a plagiarism suit brought by one of the nation's most respected black writers. Margaret Walker Alexander, director of the black studies department at Jackson State College in Mississippi, alleges that unspecified parts of Mr. Haley's book "Roots" were largely copied from her 1966 novel "Jubilee" about black life in Georgia in the Civil War period. She filed a copyright infringement suit in federal district court in Manhattan. [New York Times] A reporting system for oil companies that President Carter proposes will show, the President said, "that unfair competitive procedures are in effect." He repeated his belief that "the anti-trust laws can take care of it" and therefore there was no immediate need for legislation to break up big oil companies. [New York Times] "Some stabilizing" of the fighting in southern Zaire has been apparent, President Carter said at his news conference. He said that the United States government had "no direct evidence at all" of Cuban participation in the invasion of Shaba province by Katangan exiles, but did have information that Cubans in Angola, from which the Katangans had entered Zaire, had trained the invaders. The President said that it was "extremely unlikely" that he would approve the sale of M-60 tanks to Zaire. [New York Times] Political violence increased in Pakistan and Prime Minister Bhutto met with his party's parliamentary caucus in a show of solidarity. At least 10 persons were reported to have been killed in Karachi by soldiers firing on demonstrators demanding the Prime Minister's resignation. At least a dozen more deaths and many injuries resulted from clashes between rival political groups or in confrontations with the police in other parts of the country. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 927.07 (-8.73, -0.93%)
S&P Composite: 98.44 (-1.31, -1.31%)
Arms Index: 2.09

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	383	2.65
Declines	1,098	15.90
Unchanged	400	2.15
Total Volume		20.70

* 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 21, 1977	935.80	99.75	22.74
April 20, 1977	942.59	100.40	25.09
April 19, 1977	938.77	100.07	19.51
April 18, 1977	942.76	100.54	17.83
April 15, 1977	947.76	101.04	20.23
April 14, 1977	947.00	101.00	30.49
April 13, 1977	938.18	100.16	21.80
April 12, 1977	937.16	100.15	23.76
April 11, 1977	924.10	98.88	17.65
April 7, 1977	918.88	98.35	17.26