News stories from Friday May 13, 1977

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

It was "a major move in the right direction," President Carter said when he signed two bills that are expected to create more than a million jobs primarily for construction workers and young people. The bills, a key part of the President's economic program, authorized the expenditure of $4 billion for public works construction and appropriated $20 billion for funding that program and other public service employment. [New York Times] His criticism of the Carter administration's domestic policies, Senator George McGovern said, represented "the mainstream of the Democratic Party," not a few unhappy liberals as President Carter suggested, "It isn't as though I invented the unrest," the Senator said. He recalled that President Carter had once thought well enough of him to make two attempts to be chosen as his presidential running mate in 1972. [New York Times] New Hampshire released the last of the Seabrook anti-nuclear demonstrators from their armory prisons. Under an agreement between the demonstrators' Clamshell Alliance and the Rockingham County prosecutor, the demonstrators pleaded not guilty to trespassing charges, were found guilty in mass trials, then were released on their own recognizance pending their automatic appeal trials. [New York Times] The prime commercial banking rate was raised to 6½ percent from 6¼ percent by major banks across the country. This was the first increase in the rate -- charged on loans to corporations -- in almost a year. It was brought about by the recent rapid growth in the demand for credit and higher rates that the banks pay on large deposits. [New York Times] The economy is on a "sound growth path" that will extend well into 1978, the nation's top business executives who make up the Business Council said at the opening of their semi-annual meeting in Hot Springs, Va. Consumer prices are expected to rise, though, and the council's executive committee endorsed what one of their associates said was a pressing need for "a strong signal from the administration that it will seek to lower the tax burden on the productive sector of the economy." [New York Times] Stock prices advanced moderately despite an increase in the commercial banks' prime rate that had been expected to put a damper on trading. The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 2.80 points to 928.34. [New York Times] Cancellation of a 5 percent oil price increase that was to become effective in July has reportedly been agreed to by 11 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as part of an apparent compromise toward ending their price war with Saudi Arabia. The authoritative Middle East Economic Survey quoted OPEC sources as having said the 11-member majority of the oil cartel made a "firm decision" to freeze their prices. [New York Times] A compromise marijuana bill in the New York State legislature that would remove criminal penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana has been jeopardized by a vigorous lobbying effort by the Conservative Party. Opponents of the bill have also threatened political reprisals against individual legislators. [New York Times] New York and New Jersey and other depressed states will benefit from the administration plan to enlarge and extend the special-aid program for areas with high unemployment. The House approved the plan 243 to 94 after decisively turning back an attempt by Middle Western, Western and Southern Congressmen to cut New York's expected share of the national allotment from 21.3 percent to 17 percent, and New Jersey's from 6 percent to 3.5 percent. The Senate has approved a generally similar version of the House bill. [New York Times] The people of Pakistan apparently will decide in a referendum whether Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto should remain in office. The referendum was recommended by the Prime Minister in an address to the National Assembly. He did not say how soon the referendum could be organized. The first step would be an amendment to the constitution. The Prime Minister has been in power since 1971. He was re-elected last March in an election that the opposition Pakistan National Alliance insists was rigged. [New York Times] Restoration within a few days of virtually all of Saudi Arabia's oil production following a fire at the major Abqaiq oilfield was expected by officials of the Arabian American Oil Company, which operates all the Saudi Arabian fields. The fire broke out Wednesday and engulfed a one square mile area, forcing the shutdown of as much as three quarters of the country's oil production, more than was officially reported, the officials said. [New York Times] Dolores Ibarruri, La Pasionaria of civil war days, returned to Spain after 38 years of exile in the Soviet Union. Her return home at age 81 was made possible by the legalization of the Communist Party In Spain by the government of Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 928.34 (+2.80, +0.30%)
S&P Composite: 99.03 (+0.30, +0.30%)
Arms Index: 0.68

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	859	11.43
Declines	537	4.84
Unchanged	495	3.51
Total Volume		19.78

* 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*
May 12, 1977	925.54	98.73	21.98
May 11, 1977	926.90	98.78	18.98
May 10, 1977	936.14	99.47	21.09
May 9, 1977	933.90	99.18	15.23
May 6, 1977	936.74	99.49	19.37
May 5, 1977	943.44	100.11	23.45
May 4, 1977	940.72	99.96	23.33
May 3, 1977	934.19	99.43	21.95
May 2, 1977	931.22	98.93	17.97
April 29, 1977	926.90	98.44	18.33