News stories from Wednesday June 15, 1977

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

The first Spanish election in 41 years produced long lines at polling places as millions of voters stood patiently to select the first democratic Parliament since the Franco era. As ballots were slowly counted by hand, the governing center-right coalition took an early, tentative lead. [New York Times] President Carter reversed himself and said he would sign a $61.3 billion bill he had threatened to veto as too expensive. The measure would fund projects of the Departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare, and in agreeing to sign the legislation in its present form Mr. Carter won a pledge from House Democratic leaders to fight any proposed additions to the package. [New York Times] Rejecting a Carter rebate plan, the House Ways and Means Committee voted decisively against the proposal hat would have given a special income tax rebate of from $60 to $85 a year to families that heat their homes with oil rather than gas. [New York Times] A controversial F.B.I. computer project has been approved by the Carter administration. The project, which has been pushed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was rejected by the Ford administration as a threat to civil liberties. [New York Times] Five years after the Watergate break-in, the new chairmen of the Democratic and Republican parties can meet, share coffee and agree that the 1972 burglary of the Democratic headquarters by Republican agents has altered the nation's central political institutions for the better. [New York Times] Industrial output rose again in May, surging ahead 1.1 percent, the fourth consecutive monthly advance for the Federal Reserve Board's closely watched index. The increase put the index 6.3 percent ahead of the 1976 level and was seen as a solid sign that the economy is continuing to expand. [New York Times] Stock prices declined on the New York Stock Exchange as the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 5 points to 917.57. Analysts called the decline a normal consolidation following the 10-point advance on Tuesday. [New York Times] A general was ordered home to report to the Secretary of the Army after he told graduating American students at a high school in Germany that the United States would probably become involved in a Chinese-Soviet war in the near future. The officer, Gen, Donn Starry, commander of the Army's V Corps, has been a rising figure in the Army's hierarchy. [New York Times] Cutting nine major water projects from the controversial public works bill, a Senate Appropriations subcommittee sought compromise with President Carter, who has tried to eliminate 18 such projects. The action came a day after the water projects survived a narrow House vote. [New York Times] Bribery charges were brought against the Gulf Oil Corporation and its two top tax executives after a federal grand jury found that the company had improperly sent the Internal Revenue Service supervisor in charge of the corporation's tax audits and his family on five vacation trips. The former I.R.S. case manager is appealing a conviction in the scandal. [New York Times] An Avis takeover by Norton Simon Inc., appeared certain after the court-appointed trustee for 47 percent of the car rental company's stock signed an $82 million contract to sell 3.7 million shares to the consumer conglomerate for $22 a share. Avis promptly appealed the lower court's decision approving the sale. [New York Times] A Belgrade conference opened with representatives of 35 European and North American nations on hand to prepare for a session later this year that will assess the agreement on European Security and Cooperation reached at Helsinki two years ago. Brief opening ceremonies offered little indication of the issues to be faced during the talks and attention in Belgrade was focused on the arrest and deportation of 15 foreign civil rights activists, one a Czech-born Danish reporter accredited to the conference. [New York Times] Soviet secret police intensified their interrogation of an American newsman, Robert Toth, questioning him for more than six hours and reportedly asking him about his relationship with Anatoly Sharansky, the Jewish dissident who was jailed after being denounced as a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 917.57 (-5.00, -0.54%)
S&P Composite: 99.62 (-0.24, -0.24%)
Arms Index: 1.22

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	726	8.40
Declines	704	9.94
Unchanged	486	4.30
Total Volume		22.64

* 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*
June 14, 1977	922.57	99.86	25.39
June 13, 1977	912.40	98.74	20.25
June 10, 1977	910.79	98.46	20.63
June 9, 1977	909.85	98.14	19.94
June 8, 1977	912.99	98.20	22.20
June 7, 1977	908.67	97.73	21.11
June 6, 1977	903.07	97.23	18.93
June 3, 1977	912.23	97.69	20.33
June 2, 1977	903.15	96.74	18.62
June 1, 1977	906.55	96.93	18.32