News stories from Tuesday August 30, 1977

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

President Carter has ordered an urgent review of federal urban policy with a timetable for new plans, administration sources said. He had been stung by recent criticism from black leaders and disturbed by the looting at the time of the New York blackout. One plan developed in the Treasury Department calls for special government financing, grants and tax incentives to lure business back to the cities. No decision has been made yet whether it would include a mechanism for making loans on an emergency basis to cities such as New York if, for example, they were denied access to the public securities market. [New York Times] George Meany agreed with black leaders' charges that the Carter administration was neglecting blacks, the poor and the cities. The president of the labor federation said his "quarrel" with the President, like that of the black community's, was that the administration had failed to provide adequate jobs for the unemployed. He said a balanced budget counted less. [New York Times] David Berkowitz is unfit to stand trial, in the opinion of two court-appointed psychiatrists who examined the man accused of killing six persons and wounding seven others in the last year. They told a state Supreme Court Justice in Brooklyn that the suspect, who is accused of being the "Son of Sam," was incapacitated by paranoia. But Eugene Gold, the Brooklyn District Attorney, obtained the court's consent to additional psychiatric evaluation in an effort to disprove the finding before a ruling is made. [New York Times] Signs of slower growth -- a falloff in factory orders in July and the third straight monthly drop in the index of economic indicators -- were reported by the government. Some saw these figures as signals the economy's first-half growth rate of 7 percent was decelerating toward the administration's second-half target of 5 percent, while others recalled that this was the most prolonged series of declines since the recession of 1974 to 1975. [New York Times] Carter administration plans for wage and price restraint to reduce the underlying inflation rate, now believed to be somewhere between 6.5 and 7 percent, could be announced in the next six months, according to a qualified source in Washington. A code of voluntary standards to be applied on an industry-by-industry basis rather than national guideposts is being considered. [New York Times] Ford predicted a sales record for its new cars -- all relatively small and designed as fuel savers -- in the 1978 model year. The company expects that total domestic car and truck sales will remain below the sales record of 14.86 million set in 1973. [New York Times] Stock prices weakened under the impact of discouraging reports from Washington on the economic outlook. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 858.89, down 5.20 points, in accelerated trading. [New York Times] An F.B.I. agent who was investigated by the Department of Justice for his role in break-ins, wiretaps and mail-openings in New York plans to sue the government in an effort to recover legal costs he incurred, according to his lawyer. The lawyer said that if the agent wins the case, it is hoped that the government will pay the legal fees of many other agents in similar circumstances. A spokesman for the department said the government's position was that to pay such costs in criminal cases was impossible because this would "put us on both sides of the issue." [New York Times] The system operator of the Consolidated Edison control center on duty July 13 when the power company blacked out failed to appear, despite a subpoena, at the public hearing of the mayoral commission investigating the New York City blackout. He cited poor health. His actions were the focus of the seven-hour hearing. [New York Times] The sale of 60 advanced F-15 fighters to Saudi Arabia has been recommended to President Carter by Defense Secretary Harold Brown. Supporters of the $1.5 billion deal say it would cement ties with a major oil producer certain to play a key role in Middle East peace negotiations. Israeli officials say the sale would "destabilize" the military balance in the region. Opponents in Congress say the plane is too advanced for Saudi pilots. [New York Times] Syria's leadership, under President Hafez al-Assad, is beset by sectarian tension, corruption, economic difficulties and a succession of assassinations and explosions. Criticism of the government is expressed with surprising openness. After President Assad seized power in 1970, there was stability and prosperity, but things began to go sour in 1976. [New York Times] President Carter issued a carefully phrased statement on Northern Ireland, promising that if Roman Catholics and Protestants would settle their differences peacefully, the United States would help to encourage new financial investments in the strife-torn British province. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 858.89 (-5.20, -0.60%)
S&P Composite: 96.38 (-0.54, -0.56%)
Arms Index: 1.38

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	555	5.13
Declines	781	9.99
Unchanged	530	3.10
Total Volume		18.22

* 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 29, 1977	864.09	96.92	15.28
August 26, 1977	855.42	96.09	18.48
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