News stories from Thursday July 28, 1977

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

Medicaid funds will be available at least until next week to states that want to use them for elective abortions. Judge John Dooling of Federal district court in Brooklyn told the Department of Health, Education Welfare to make the funds available and issued a temporary restraining order to prevent it from doing otherwise. The order will be effective at least until Wednesday, when Judge Dooling will hear arguments on whether he should issue a new preliminary injunction that could be made permanent. [New York Times] Portraying himself and Congress as the last hope of America's poor, President Carter charged that critics damaged the optimism of the underprivileged by suggesting national leaders did not care about their welfare. "This removed from them that prospect of a better life," Mr. Carter said, suggesting that recent public criticism of his attitude was not only "erroneous" but "demagogic" as well. [New York Times] The people generally approve of President Carter, according to a nationwide telephone survey conducted by the New York Times and CBS News, but there has been a marked decline in confidence that he can achieve such objectives as significantly reducing unemployment or balancing the national budget. The poll covered tough current issues, and it found that the President had accurately read the country's mood and fashioned his own positions to conform with prevailing views. [New York Times] Oil stocks gave the market the little strength it was able to muster following the drop of 19.75 points Wednesday in the Dow Jones industrial average. The average showed small changes during today's session and finished ahead 1.56 points at 889.99. [New York Times] Proposed special duties on imports of Japanese television sets were rejected, 3 to 2, by the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals at Washington in overruling a lower Customs Court. The Zenith Corporation had sought the tariff protection. Robert Strauss, the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations, said he was "very pleased" by the decision, regarded by the administration as a major legal victory. Zenith said it would appeal to the Supreme Court. [New York Times] The new director of the National Endowment for the Humanities will be Joseph Duffey, an assistant secretary of state for Educational and Cultural Affairs, according to cultural sources in Washington, who said President Carter would announce the appointment Tuesday. [New York Times] A "keep-the-frills" fare plan will be presented by Pan American World Airways to the Civil Aeronautics Board tomorrow in response to a Laker Airways no-frills $135 New York-to-London fare. The Pan Am fare would be $146 to London and, because of the dollar-pound relationship, $110 the other way. The round-trip fare of $256 would be not quite $20 more than Laker's round-trip fare. [New York Times] A conciliatory view was taken by President Carter toward Prime Minister Menachem Begin's decision to legalize three existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank occupied by Israel. He said the decision was an obstacle but not an insurmountable barrier to a Middle East peace. He seemed to wish, however, that the settlements would not be established while the United States was actively seeking a new Geneva conference on the Middle East. [New York Times] President Carter bowed to congressional opposition and agreed to put off until September his controversial offer to sell a modern airborne radar warning system to Iran. He changed his mind only a few hours after he had defended the proposed sale in a news conference. The House International Relations Committee shocked the administration by voting 19 to 17 to block the sale. Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said they would also have voted against the sale if Mr. Carter had not retreated. [New York Times] Preliminary talks in Geneva by representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain have cleared the way for formal negotiations in October on a treaty banning all underground nuclear explosions. [New York Times] A truck and its cargo of 15 tons of newly minted French coins valued at $3.54 million was hijacked in Paris by four bandits who were believed to be acting on inside information. The truck was on its way to the central Bank of France in Paris. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 889.99 (+1.56, +0.18%)
S&P Composite: 98.79 (+0.15, +0.15%)
Arms Index: 0.76

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	609	11.01
Declines	839	11.56
Unchanged	432	3.77
Total Volume		26.34

* 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*
July 27, 1977	888.43	98.64	26.44
July 26, 1977	908.18	100.27	21.39
July 25, 1977	914.24	100.85	20.43
July 22, 1977	923.42	101.59	23.11
July 21, 1977	921.78	101.59	26.88
July 20, 1977	920.48	101.73	29.38
July 19, 1977	919.27	101.79	31.94
July 18, 1977	910.60	100.95	26.89
July 15, 1977	905.95	100.18	29.12
July 13, 1977	902.99	99.59	23.16