News stories from Tuesday May 31, 1977

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

Seniority systems that perpetuate past racial discrimination are not necessarily illegal, the Supreme Court ruled. Voting 7 to 2, the Court found that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not bar the use of "bona fide" seniority systems that had placed blacks at a disadvantage to whites in competing for better jobs and benefits before the provision took effect in 1965. As long as there was no intent to discriminate, the Court said, the seniority systems may be used. [New York Times] In another ruling, the Supreme Court held that states had the right to deny jobless benefits to workers who were laid off because of a labor dispute at one of their company's suppliers. In an 8-to-0 decision, the Court upheld the constitutionality of an Ohio law refusing the benefits to furloughed employees even though they were not directly involved in the dispute. [New York Times] The stock market continued to show a broad-based weakness as many former favorites posted their lowest prices of the year. The Dow Jones industrial average eased 0.17 to 898.66, following the 9-point slide in the previous session on Friday below the psychologically important level of 900. [New York Times] Rhodesian troops hunting guerrilla bases have seized Mapai, a town 50 miles Inside neighboring Mozambique, and plan to remain until all guerrilla forces in the region are wiped out, the commander of the raid declared. He said the raiders had smashed four guerrilla camps and had killed at least 32 guerrillas in what was termed Rhodesia's biggest military operation in the four-year war against the black nationalists. [New York Times] The planned sale of a nuclear plant to Pakistan has been put off by France, officials in Paris disclosed. The plan raised a controversy between Paris and Washington, and the French decision in effect brings France into agreement with President Carter's campaign against the export of nuclear reprocessing plants that could enable more countries to develop atomic arms. [New York Times] Economic concessions offered by the United States and other industrial countries at a Paris meeting were criticized as inadequate by representatives of the world's needy nations. [New York Times] The South Moluccans who have been holding 56 hostages for eight days on a train near Assen, the Netherlands, have asked for mediators in an effort to end their standoff with the Dutch government. It appeared likely that the terrorists had submitted a list of possible mediators sought and that the government was pondering acceptance. [New York Times] Kuwait will boycott products of the Matsushita Electric Corporation of America made under license from the RCA Corporation, Matsushita officials said. RCA has been identified as being on the Arab boycott list for dealing with Israel. Observers said that Kuwait's action was one of the strongest so far to enforce the Arab boycott. Qatar and Syria have reportedly taken similar action. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 898.66 (-0.17, -0.02%)
S&P Composite: 96.12 (-0.15, -0.16%)
Arms Index: 0.79

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	509	6.18
Declines	902	8.60
Unchanged	457	3.02
Total Volume		17.80

* 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 27, 1977	898.83	96.27	15.73
May 26, 1977	908.07	97.01	18.62
May 25, 1977	903.24	96.77	20.71
May 24, 1977	912.40	97.67	20.05
May 23, 1977	917.06	98.15	18.29
May 20, 1977	930.46	99.45	18.95
May 19, 1977	936.48	99.88	21.28
May 18, 1977	941.91	100.30	27.80
May 17, 1977	936.48	99.77	22.29
May 16, 1977	932.50	99.47	21.17