News stories from Friday August 19, 1977

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

An earthquake, possibly the strongest ever recorded, struck the eastern Indian Ocean between Australia and Indonesia, shaking tall buildings in Perth, Australia, 1,000 miles to the south. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The Indonesian islands closest to the quake's epicenter are relatively isolated, and reports from the area were delayed. Earthquake monitoring stations around the world indicated that the strength of the tremor was between 7.7 and 8.9 on the Richter scale. [New York Times] A decline in retail food costs helped bring consumer prices down to 0.4 percent last month, the smallest increase of the year, the Labor Department said. Government economists were encouraged by the indicator, which they said was further evidence that the inflation acceleration in the year's first quarter to 10 percent and more was an aberration. Some private economists were not so optimistic. [New York Times] The government's inquiry into Bert Lance's financial dealings when he was a banker has touched off a full-scale examination of the standards and methods of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in regulating the nation's banks. Well placed sources said that three senior officials in the Comptroller's office were under scrutiny for their roles in an earlier examination of Mr. Lance's financial affairs. [New York Times] An Indonesian banker and financier, Mochtar Riyady of Jakarta, agreed to purchase Bert Lance's 200,767 shares of stock in the National Bank of Georgia, paying about $17.06 a share. Mr. Lance headed the bank before he became budget director; the stock has been in the hands of a trustee since then. [New York Times] Citibank raised its prime commercial lending rate to 7 percent from 6¾ percent, the first such increase since May 31. The increase in the rate charged the bank's most creditworthy customers reflects not only the higher cost of short-term funds to banks, prompted by actions of the Federal Reserve System, but also a greater-than-expected strengthening in the economy, analysts said. [New York Times] The Dow Jones industrial and transportation averages dipped to new 1977 lows for the fourth day in a row. Utilities were also lower. The Dow Jones industrials lost more than four points by early afternoon, but recovered and closed with a token decline of 0.78 point at 863.48. It was the average's poorest reading since Jan. 2, 1976, when it closed at 858.71. The transportation average dipped 0.63 to 214.70, its lowest closing in nine months. [New York Times] Atlantic City's Steel Pier, a pre-1900 landmark has been bought by a Maryland developer, who wants to turn it into a $75 million, four-block-long "Casino-at-Sea" that would be housed in a silo-shaped hotel where all guests would have oceanfront rooms. Alvin Snyder said that he "bought" the pier contingent on obtaining the necessary federal, state and city permits for the pier's conversion. His is the latest multimillion casino proposal for the resort since casinos there were approved by voters last November. [New York Times] A federal judge ruled that the Federal Bureau of Investigation must give its files on 18 informers to lawyers for the Socialist Workers Party. The decision by Judge Thomas Griesa of Federal District Court in Manhattan grew out of the party's $90 million suit against the F.B.I. and other agencies. The decision has been stayed until the decision on the government's pending appeal is known. [New York Times] China was expected to announce this weekend a major shift in official ideology from revolutionary radicalism to more pragmatic policies adopted at a huge gathering in the Great Hall of the People in Peking. The meeting apparently was the 11th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. [New York Times] South Africa was reported to have decided on a plan for a new system of government that would allow Asians and people of mixed race, but not blacks, to share political power. The existing parliamentary system would be replaced by a presidential system roughly similar to that of France. The first president is almost certain to be John Vorster, now Prime Minister. The plan is expected to be presented to a caucus of the governing National Party tomorrow. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 863.48 (-0.78, -0.09%)
S&P Composite: 97.51 (-0.17, -0.17%)
Arms Index: 1.01

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	558	7.14
Declines	765	9.88
Unchanged	535	3.78
Total Volume		20.80

* 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 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
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