News stories from Wednesday August 17, 1977

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

A federal judge from Alabama, Frank Johnson, was nominated by President Carter as the next head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The 58-year-old jurist won national attention in the late 1950's with decisions speeding integration. Attorney General Griffin Bell, a personal friend, said he had sought out Judge Johnson for the post after hearing that he regretted having turned it down when Mr. Carter first offered it to him in December. [New York Times] Bert Lance expressed confidence that a "complete and a fair" report by the Comptroller of the Currency would show that he had done nothing wrong. President Carter's Director of the Office of Management and Budget said that he had no plan to resign. He would not comment on specifics of the investigation or speculation that the Comptroller's report might suggest that some matters be referred to the Department of Justice for further investigation. [New York Times] The jury in the corruption trial of Gov. Marvin Mandel of Maryland and five wealthy business friends reported it was deadlocked after six days of deliberations. However, it was ordered by United States District Judge Robert Taylor to return to continue efforts to reach a verdict. It met only briefly because one juror became ill. [New York Times] Some 800 illegal Mexican aliens got into the United States with United States birth certificates obtained for them on the basis of fraudulent evidence by an ingenious Peruvian, Oscar Elias Malca Valdivia. He collected $800 to $1,400 from each of them for the unforged certificates stamped by state authorities. Immigration agents have been trying to track them down ever since his operation was first exposed in 1975. [New York Times] Personal income gained again in July, this time by 0.8 percent, the Commerce Department said, largely because of a 5 9 percent rise in Social Security distributions. Although business inventories increased in June and sales at the manufacturing level rose 0.2 percent, a Treasury Department economist said the gain was not what one would expect from strong growth. [New York Times] Stock prices lost ground again except for scattered strength in some glamour issues. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 4.59 points to 864.69, a new low since Jan. 2, 1976. Old worries -- higher short-term interest rates and signs of a slowing economy -- were held responsible for the gloom over Wall Street's market community. [New York Times] The ban on Concorde flights at Kennedy Airport was ruled illegal by Judge Milton Pollack of Federal District Court because of "excessive and unjustified delay" in setting sound level standards for the supersonic airliner. His order gave 10 days to lift the ban, giving the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey a chance to appeal, which it plans to do. British and French operators of the Concorde hailed the judge's decision. [New York Times] Mayor Beame accused the Securities and Exchange Commission of injecting itself into the New York City mayoral campaign. He released the transcript of his sworn testimony before the S.E.C. last year and angrily denied that he had failed to disclose the city's fiscal plight in 1974 and 1975. He said he was issuing his own testimony to promote a reasoned public evaluation before the primary election rather than wait longer for the S E.C. report. [New York Times] The government of Israel approved construction of three new Israeli settlements in territory captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, explaining that it was only carrying out a decision of the previous government. The action followed President Carter's urging Prime Minister Menachem Begin not to start new settlements in occupied areas before the Geneva peace talks. In Washington, the State Department criticized the decision. [New York Times] A Soviet nuclear icebreaker has reached the North Pole, according to press dispatches from Moscow, making it the first surface ship to break through the Arctic ice pack to reach the top of the world. The vessel, the Arktika, is the Soviet Union's second nuclear icebreaker. A third is being built. [New York Times] A rare admission of Soviet espionage abroad came in a Moscow newspaper's citation of K.G.B. files contending that the Central Intelligence Agency was responsible for the disappearance in Vienna late in 1975 of a Russian-born double agent, Nicholas Shadrin. The paper said the former Soviet naval officer, whose real name was Nikolai Artamonov, was murdered by the Americans after they learned that he wanted to return. [New York Times] Michael Goldsmith, a foreign correspondent of the Associated Press, told of his 30 days of imprisonment in Bangui, capital of the Central African Empire, handcuffed and often chained in a windowless cell with body wounds untreated and a concrete slab for a bed. He says he understood from stray remarks that he was suspected of being a South African agent. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 864.59 (-4.69, -0.54%)
S&P Composite: 97.74 (+0.01, +0.01%)
Arms Index: 0.84

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	582	8.14
Declines	735	8.62
Unchanged	539	4.16
Total Volume		20.92

* 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 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
August 11, 1977	877.43	98.16	21.74
August 10, 1977	887.04	98.92	18.28
August 9, 1977	879.42	98.05	19.90
August 8, 1977	879.42	97.99	15.87
August 5, 1977	888.69	98.76	19.94
August 4, 1977	888.17	98.74	18.87
August 3, 1977	886.00	98.37	21.17