News stories from Friday August 26, 1977

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

Bert Lance's use of a single block of bank shares as collateral for two separate loans from two different banks at the same time was confirmed by a White House spokesman, who termed it "an innocent mistake." Speaking for Mr. Lance, Jody Powell, President Carter's press secretary, said that "categorically, at the time he made the second loan, he was not aware that he had pledged the same stock in the first loan." [New York Times] Judge Frank Johnson, the director-designate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was said to be in "excellent" condition after surgery in Houston to correct a weakened and ballooning wall in the main abdominal artery. The operation was performed by Dr. Michael deBakey at the Methodist Hospital. [New York Times] A sniper who killed six persons in Hackettstown, N.J., shot and killed himself as he was about to be captured, the state police said. His victims were walking along a railroad track when the sniper, identified only as between 18 and 22 years old, stepped out from a wooded area and started shooting. [New York Times] Looting in the blackout last month was attributed by New Yorkers to common thievery rather than a protest against ghetto conditions, a New York Times-CBS News survey found. In answering questions designed to determine the impact of the looting generally and on the mayoral primary, city residents favored a call-up of the National Guard in any future power blackout, but overwhelmingly opposed any "shoot to kill" orders to the police or Guardsmen in the event of looting. [New York Times] Esquire magazine was sold to a company formed by Clay Felker, founder and former editor of New York magazine, and several associates, including Vere Harmsworth, chairman of Britain's Associated Newspaper Group Ltd. [New York Times] "Strictly technical" reasons were responsible, analysts said, for the stock market's recovery late in the session, and there was nothing, they said, in the economic news that encouraged buying. The Dow Jones industrial average declined more than seven points early in the session, but the rally brought it up 1.30 points to 855.42. The average lost a total of 8.06 points through the week. [New York Times] Culminating a 19-month investigation of New York City's financial crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Mayor Beame and Comptroller Harrison Goldin of "deceptive practices masking the city's true and disastrous financial condition." The report charged that when the city sold a record amount of short-term securities in 1974 and 1975, the Mayor and the Comptroller and five New York City banks misled investors in the securities by failing to disclose the city's perilous financial condition. The Mayor and the Comptroller "had knowledge of the facts," despite "numerous reassuring public statements," the report said. The report made no charge of criminal fraud against any individual or institution. Copies were sent to Congress for possible action on extending federal security controls on municipal obligations.The report also charged that some of New York City's underwriters -- among them were some of the largest banks in the country -- were reducing or eliminating their own holdings of the city's securities while they were urging small investors to purchase the city's debt. This had the effect of significantly limiting the market for the city's notes, which at the time had saturated the financial markets, the report added. Most of the banks denied the charge. Mayor Beame, making a strong defense of his testimony before the S.E.C. on the city's fiscal crisis, said the commission's report was a "shameless, vicious political document" and "a hatchet job." His opponents in the Democratic mayoral primary took views ranging from condemnatory to sympathetic. Herman Badillo was definitely unsympathetic. He asked the Justice Department to impanel a grand jury to study possible criminal violations and he asked Mario Cuomo, the New York Secretary of State, to revoke Mr. Beame's license as a certified public accountant. [New York Times] A law establishing French as the principal language of Quebec was passed by the Quebec Assembly. This dismayed the economically dominant English-speaking community, which regards the designation of French as the official language as a major step toward the province's transformation into an exclusively French-speaking independent nation. Tension over the language question was increased by reports of a plot to assassinate Premier Rene Levesque and other government officials. Persons connected with unidentified multinational companies and the United States Central Intelligence Agency were said to be involved in the alleged assassination plot. [New York Times] The Palestine Liberation Organization said no to any dialogue with the Carter administration. At the end of a two-day session of its central council, it issued a statement attacking "American and Zionist maneuvers." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 855.42 (+1.30, +0.15%)
S&P Composite: 96.09 (-0.06, -0.06%)
Arms Index: 0.90

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	550	6.63
Declines	780	8.45
Unchanged	521	3.40
Total Volume		18.48

* 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*
August 25, 1977	854.12	96.15	19.40
August 24, 1977	862.87	97.23	18.17
August 23, 1977	865.56	97.62	20.29
August 22, 1977	867.29	97.79	17.87
August 19, 1977	863.48	97.51	20.80
August 18, 1977	864.26	97.68	21.04
August 17, 1977	864.59	97.74	20.92
August 16, 1977	869.28	97.73	19.34
August 15, 1977	874.13	98.18	15.75
August 12, 1977	871.10	97.88	16.87