News stories from Wednesday June 1, 1977

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

Changes in the welfare system are being prepared by officials of the Carter administration in hopes of saving $3 billion a year by tightening eligibility requirements, Under the plan, benefits would be withheld from many children who live with grandparents. Among those expected to suffer most would also be unmarried teenage mothers and their children and families dependent on seasonal work, such as construction and canning. Some private experts doubt that the proposed new rules would save much money. [New York Times] Landmark job discrimination cases in such industries as steel and communications may have to be reconsidered following the Supreme Court ruling Tuesday upholding seniority systems that are not intentionally discriminatory, legal sources said. The Court decided 7 to 2 that seniority systems that perpetuate past discrimination were not necessarily illegal. [New York Times] New factory orders and shipments of manufactured products fell slightly in April, the Commerce Department reported. The biggest drop came in the auto industry, where shipments declined 8 percent from March and new orders fell 7 percent. Department analysts were not disturbed by the April report, noting that orders, shipments and inventory accumulations were strong in March. [New York Times] Moving oil through the Alaska pipeline will cost $6.04 a barrel, instead of the $5.50 a barrel expected by federal officials, according to the Atlantic Richfield Company. The tariff rate, filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, also shows that the cost of constructing the pipeline has mounted to perhaps $9 billion, 10 times the original estimate of $900 million, Arco officials said. [New York Times] A sharp rally paced by movie-related issues was staged by the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average shared in the gains as it rose 7.89 points to 906.55. [New York Times] The new income tax in New Jersey will be the key issue in the primary next Tuesday, according to Governor Brendan Byrne, who said that voter opposition to the tax would be the reason if he were defeated. In a discussion of the issues, his five main challengers disagreed. Most said they had entered the campaign because of what they termed his inadequate leadership. [New York Times] Bella Abzug tossed a hat, a big-brimmed black straw one, into the race for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City in a ceremony attended by show business celebrities. She then pulled a white hat from under a lectern, put it on and said, "The good guys always wear white." [New York Times] A limited aid accord for the developing world appeared near after almost 18 months of negotiations between them and the industrialized nations, but a deadlock over plans to make rises in the price of oil more difficult threatened to sour relations between the two groups. The industrial countries pushed hard for an accord on a new forum in which producers and consumers of oil would continue to consult on energy issues. The effort was resisted by oil exporting and poor nations. [New York Times] An earthquake that devastated the city of Tangshan last July was described as the most deadly in China in more than four centuries by Chinese authorities, in an unusual display of candor. They said that the quake sliced a path of total destruction of 20 square miles in the center of the former metropolis of one million people. The Chinese declined to reveal the total casualties, but the data they gave a Mexican research team suggested that more lives were lost than in any other quake since 830,000 people died in China's Huasien quake in 1556, the most deadly in history. [New York Times] Eritrean independence is in sight, according to rebels who have been seeking it from Ethiopia in 15 years of fighting. The rebels have pushed government forces into a few besieged cities and towns in the country's northernmost province and assert they are preparing offensives to take them into the provincial capital of Asmara. [New York Times] A charge of treason was made by Soviet authorities against Anatoly Sharansky, a prominent Jewish dissident and human rights activist. The formal charge is the sharpest attack in many years against advocates of an open Soviet society, and reflects a growing drive by the Soviet secret police to discredit dissidents by trying to link them to the C.I.A. [New York Times] If the Russians undertook "serious" talks on limitation of strategic nuclear arms, said Jody Powell, President Carter's spokesman, the United States could revise plans to deploy an improved intercontinental missile warhead capable of destroying Soviet missiles in their launching silos. In a policy statement, Mr. Carter urged Congress to approve a bill to create a consumer protection agency. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 906.55 (+7.89, +0.88%)
S&P Composite: 96.93 (+0.81, +0.84%)
Arms Index: 0.58

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	973	12.37
Declines	442	3.24
Unchanged	482	2.71
Total Volume		18.32

* 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 31, 1977	898.66	96.12	17.80
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