News stories from Friday July 29, 1977

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

Oil piped from the nation's largest field !at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska is pouring at last -- after long delays caused by workers' mishaps and sabotage -- into terminal tanks at the southern Alaskan port of Valdez. The oil will be shipped from Valdez to refineries in California, Washington and the Middle West. [New York Times] With the administration's blessing, the House Democratic leadership has worked out a compromise in its energy package calling for a five-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase instead of the four-cent rise proposed by a special House committee. The compromise was made to mollify unhappy Democrats and persuade a few Republicans. [New York Times] Federal officials brushed off a decline in the Commerce Department's index of leading economic indicators in June, the second consecutive month in which the index dipped. The June index declined by six-tenths of 1 percent. The decline in May was two-tenths of 1 percent. The June decline was not taken seriously as an indicator of general economic weakness because it mainly reflected a softness in wholesale prices of crude materials, especially natural gas and scrap steel. [New York Times] A late rally in sharply depressed steel shares enabled the faltering Dow Jones industrial average to make a token gain. The average had been down nearly 8½ points early in the session, but with the steel rally it finished 0.08 point higher at 890.07. U.S. Steel rose 1⅜ points to 36½ in active trading. Bethlehem Steel, continuing as the volume leader, moved ahead a point to 23⅝ . [New York Times] Arctic Gas, a consortium that proposed to build a cross-Canada pipeline for Alaskan natural gas, announced that it would instead support a similar plan of the Alcan Pipeline Company that has the approval of the Canadian National Energy Board. The Arctic Gas proposal was rejected by the Canadians because of potential environmental damage. Alcan is a subsidiary of the Northwest Pipeline Corporation of Salt Lake City. Eight other American natural gas companies had previously indicated that they would join Alcan. [New York Times] Urban and rural Congressmen, who used to oppose each other regularly on issues involving their special interests, are now voting together on certain issues. The latest informal and largely transitory urban-rural coalition was formed this week when Congressmen from city and farm districts got together and won increased farm supports and an overhauled food stamp program. [New York Times] The possibility that Prince Saud al-Faisal's human rights had been violated when his attempt to buy a Park Avenue cooperative apartment were rebuffed by residents of the building is being investigated by the New York state Attorney General, Louis Lefkowitz. The inquiry was undertaken at the request of Nelson Rockefeller, who said he had met the Saudi Arabian Prince when he was Vice President. [New York Times] A roundup that some people say is the biggest in the history of the West has been started by the government in Nevada to save 10,000 wild horses and burros from death by thirst. A drought has ravaged the 600,000-acre Owyhee Desert and there is not enough water for the horses. The horses will be offered to the public for adoption. [New York Times] Israeli and Arab leaders will be given specific American proposals by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance during his forthcoming Middle East trip in an attempt to help them overcome obstacles to a new Geneva peace conference. Mr. Vance was very cautious at a news conference in Washington -- contrasting sharply with President Carter's optimism -- and he did not hide the possibility that his mission might not be successful. The major difficulty is settling the question of whether the Palestine Liberation Organization should be represented in Geneva. [New York Times] Intervening personally for the first time in the Panama Canal treaty talks, President Carter called the chief negotiators for both sides to a meeting at the White House. In another effort to step up the negotiations, the President announced that he was sending a personal letter to Panama's chief of government, Gen. Omar Torrijos. General Torrijos scheduled a meeting in Colombia Aug. 5 to 7 to discuss the status of the negotiations with five leaders of nearby countries. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 890.07 (+0.08, +0.01%)
S&P Composite: 98.85 (+0.06, +0.06%)
Arms Index: 0.96

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	630	7.52
Declines	785	8.97
Unchanged	465	3.86
Total Volume		20.35

* 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 28, 1977	889.99	98.79	26.34
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