News stories from Thursday September 15, 1977

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

An aggressive defense of his integrity, his career as a Georgia banker and his competence to manage the national budget was made by Bert Lance at a Senate hearing. He told the Senate Government Affairs Committee, which confirmed his appointment as budget director in January, that it had no grounds to question that decision now. He insisted that he had withheld nothing about his banking career from the Senate.Mr. Lance began his rebuttal with a 49-page statement in which he promised to answer to the best of his ability "every charge that has been made and every question that is asked." When he finished his carefully worded statement nearly two hours later, he had given his first detailed reply to a series of charges ranging from a possible criminal misuse of corporate aircraft to allegedly "sloppy" management of two Georgia banks. However, he sidestepped a number of issues, avoided a number of others and attempted in courtroom fashion to focus a strong counterattack on several narrow points. [New York Times] An increase in the minimum wage in each of the next three years was approved by the House and in a tense, dramatic roll call, it defeated a proposed sub-minimum wage for youths by a margin of one vote. The House also defeated a proposal, supported by labor organizations and President Carter, to set the wage permanently at 53 percent of the average wage of manufacturing workers. The wage is now $2.30 an hour. Under the step-ups it will rise to $2.65 on Jan. 1, to $2.85 in 1979 and to $3.05 in 1980. [New York Times] A consumer rebate of revenues from a new tax on domestically produced crude oil, proposed by President Carter, apparently will not go farther than the Senate Finance Committee, which made clear that it would not be accepted. The committee would like the money used for the development of new energy resources, particularly unconventional forms, such as oil shale. [New York Times] A nationwide breast cancer screening program would be continued, with some restrictions, under the recommendations of a panel of cancer experts. Since 1973, 280,000 women have been tested for cancer with an X-ray technique called mammography. The experts called for a tightening of the existing guidelines under which the mammography technique is used. [New York Times] Stock prices continued upward after the threat of an increase by the Federal Reserve in short-term interest rates had been lifted. Rising auto sales apparently also had a beneficial influence on the market. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 2.08 points to 860.79, rising from the 20-month low it almost reached again Tuesday. [New York Times] An additional round-trip New York-London budget fare was approved by the Civil Aeronautics Board and it became effective immediately. Travelers will be able to take reserved-seat flights at a fare of $280, just $24 above the new "standby" fare that was used for the first time today. The $280 is $44 above the slightly more austere "standby" fare that the British Laker Airways will offer Sept. 26. [New York Times] American technicians may he sent abroad to help rehabilitate the Soviet-built planes in the Egyptian air force. Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton told a House subcommittee that the State Department had informed two companies, General Electric and Lockheed, that it supported such an arrangement from a policy point of view. He said the arrangement would essentially be the sale of services. Some members of the House warned that the decision could increase tensions in the Middle East. [New York Times] More than 1,200 students were arrested by the South African police as they gathered at their university to commemorate the death Tuesday of Steven Biko, a young black leader, allegedly after a hunger strike while in police detention. The arrests were made without resistance at the University of Fort Hare, one of the universities attended by Mr. Biko. Policemen with attack dogs ordered the students into a fleet of trucks after a crowd of about 1,500 -- equal to the university's entire enrollment -- started the memorial meeting, which was marked by the singing of black nationalist anthems. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 860.79 (+2.08, +0.24%)
S&P Composite: 96.80 (+0.25, +0.26%)
Arms Index: 0.75

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	817	9.65
Declines	539	4.78
Unchanged	506	3.80
Total Volume		18.23

* 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*
September 14, 1977	858.71	96.55	17.33
September 13, 1977	854.56	96.09	14.90
September 12, 1977	854.38	96.03	18.70
September 9, 1977	857.07	96.37	18.10
September 8, 1977	868.16	97.28	18.29
September 7, 1977	876.39	98.01	18.07
September 6, 1977	873.27	97.71	16.13
September 2, 1977	872.31	97.45	15.62
September 1, 1977	864.86	96.83	18.82
August 31, 1977	861.49	96.77	19.08