News stories from Monday December 31, 1979

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

One week to free American hostages was granted to Iran in an 11 to 0 vote by the United Nations Security Council. If they are not released by then, the Council agreed to meet next Monday to impose economic sanctions against Iran. Four countries abstained. The Council next month will have at least four new members and it is conceivable that its position could change. [New York Times] In the "strongest message" of his presidency, Jimmy Carter said, he warned Moscow that Soviet intervention in Afghanistan "would severely and adversely" affect American-Soviet relations. The President said the response of Leonid Brezhnev to his message, sent on Friday, had been inadequate, and that Washington and its allies planned retaliatory action stronger than words.Fighting erupted briefly in Kabul as Soviet troops in the Afghan capital battled to consolidate their control after last Thursday's coup. The two-hour battle, involving tanks, artillery and machine guns, marked an apparent challenge by Afghan soldiers to some of the Soviet troops that have poured across the border in the last week. Later, all accounts said Soviet forces were generally well in control. Soviet intervention in Afghanistan would be condemned in a projected United Nations resolution, according to diplomats. They said that Pakistan and other third-world nations would seek an urgent meeting of the Security Council to consider such a resolution. [New York Times] A pessimistic economic report was issued by the government, which said that the composite index of leading indicators dropped 1.3 percent in November after a 1.4 percent decline in October. The two-month decline, a senior government economist said, was the worst such drop since the one that preceded the 1974-75 recession. [New York Times] A new California tax cut that would reduce personal income levies to half their current level is being pressed by Howard Jarvis, the co-author and principal salesman for Proposition 13. The latter initiative has forced the state to spend $1 billion a year beyond its means, and the new ballot proposal would cut $5 billion more from state revenues -- one-fifth of total funds available annually. [New York Times] Hard union-management negotiations may be in prospect in 1980 because of an array of uncertainties. Questions include the extent of inflation, recession and unemployment and what new wage and price policies will be set by the government. The last year was an uneasy one in labor-management relations, highlighted by strikes in the trucking and rubber industries and bitter attacks by both sides on federal policies. [New York Times] A shortage of rental housing is rising across the nation and threatens to become critical in some cities. The situation has been aggravated by the recent surge in mortgage interest rates and the tight supply of credit that have sharply cut residential real estate sales in many major cities, forcing numerous aspiring homeowners to become renters. [New York Times] President Carter is seeking support for his re-election campaign by making a score of telephone calls each day. White House officials said that the calls lasted no more than a few minutes and averaged 20 a day, although he made many more than that over the Christmas holidays. [New York Times] A big international gun-running ring is selling at least $10 million in arms a year, according to investigators in New York, Washington and Britain who said the members included two men accused in Manhattan last week of selling 10,000 machine guns to two undercover city detectives. Officials said evidence indicated that the group had access to many weapons, including radar-controlled antiaircraft missiles and remotely controlled bombs. [New York Times] A national British steel strike will almost certainly begin on Wednesday. If a walkout lasts much more than a month, large sectors of British industry could be crippled. The state-owned British Steel Corporation and union leaders seemed to be so far apart as to preclude further contract negotiations. [New York Times] Moving against Palestinian autonomy, Israel announced plans to expropriate with compensation an Arab-owned East Jerusalem utility that has supplied power to much of the occupied West Bank since 1928, when it obtained the concession from the British authorities in Palestine. The announced takeover, which is set for a year from tomorrow, brought angry reactions from Palestinian leaders. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 838.74 (-0.17, -0.02%)
S&P Composite: 107.94 (+0.10, +0.09%)
Arms Index: 0.77

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	755	14.74
Declines	756	11.31
Unchanged	469	5.48
Total Volume		31.53

* 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*
December 28, 1979	838.91	107.84	34.42
December 27, 1979	840.10	107.96	31.40
December 26, 1979	838.14	107.78	24.95
December 24, 1979	839.16	107.66	19.15
December 21, 1979	838.91	107.59	36.16
December 20, 1979	843.34	108.26	40.39
December 19, 1979	838.91	108.20	41.79
December 18, 1979	838.65	108.30	43.30
December 17, 1979	844.62	109.33	43.83
December 14, 1979	842.75	108.92	41.82