News stories from Thursday September 22, 1977

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

A plan for immediate deregulation of prices of new supplies of natural gas was kept alive by the Senate despite personal appeals from President Carter to kill the proposal. Pro-regulation forces immediately started a filibuster. The minority leader, Howard Baker, said he and the majority leader, Robert Byrd, would probably introduce a cloture petition tomorrow, forcing a vote Monday to limit debate. [New York Times] Bert Lance returned home to Calhoun, Ga., to a hero's welcome following his resignation as budget director. He told a crowd of 1,500, about a third of the population, that he had "tried to do what's right" and that "we hope in some small way we have made a contribution to government and made you proud." The crowd broke into rebel yells. [New York Times] Bert Lance's departure from the administration may cause the relationship between government and business to deteriorate, according to many of the nation's business leaders who were generally sympathetic to him. They believe that without Mr. Lance as budget director, the business community will be deprived of an especially effective conduit for industry views. [New York Times] A 3.3 percent rise in August factory orders for durable goods, the biggest increase since March, was reported by the Commerce Department. These orders, which indicate future production, were a seasonally-adjusted $57.9 billion last month, mainly because of gains in the machinery, fabricated metals and primary metals sectors. [New York Times] A jittery stock market, fearful that the Federal Reserve will again raise short-term interest rates following a $2 billion surge in the nation's money supply, declined in much slower trading. The Dow Jones average, which had a series of minor losses, closed down 1.82 points at 839.14. [New York Times] Governor Carey was urged by Senator William Proxmire to call a special session of he legislature to enact legislation that would enable New York City to re-enter the public credit market before the end of the year. Mr. Proxmire, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the government's seasonal loans to the city, reminded the Governor that he had told the committee last May "that the city would probably be able to go to market sometime in the fall." [New York Times] Teachers were assigned on the basis of race for the first time in New York City's school system. Minority teachers were sent to districts where the proportion of black and Hispanic teachers was less than 10 percent and white teachers were sent to districts where the proportion of minority teachers was more than 20 percent. All those teachers affected were ones who had been laid off and then rehired. School officials are attempting to comply with an order from the federal Office of Civil Rights to equalize the number of minority teachers in the city's 32 school districts. [New York Times] Arabs are "ready for the first time to accept Israel as a Middle Eastern country to live in peace in this area," Egypt's Foreign Minister said in one of the most explicit statements ever made by an Arab government official about coexistence with Israel. The statement by Ismail Fahmy increased a growing impression in Washington of an improvement in the prospects for at least a procedural breakthrough in the efforts to reconvene a Geneva conference by year's end. [New York Times] The British-American proposals for bringing about a black majority government in Rhodesia were denounced by Prime Minister Ian Smith as "an attempt to appease the Russian-oriented terrorists who are operating from Zambia and Mozambique." Mr. Smith said in an interview that his country had become "reconciled" to majority rule and that he was ready to compromise if the proposals were modified. "We've genuinely come to the conclusion that we've got to get away from discrimination based on color," he said. [New York Times] An arms agreement limiting strategic weapons will continue to be observed by the United States after it expires Oct. 3, the administration told Congress, so long as the Soviet Union also adheres to the accord. The administration also told the Soviet Union that it would issue a unilateral statement "not to take any action inconsistent" with the 1972 accord. [New York Times] China will resume the scientific research that was disrupted by a decade of political upheaval. Peking announced that scientists are to be given more time, money and freedom to pursue their work, and that a national science conference would be held next spring. China must he thoroughly modernized by the end of the century, the party announcement said. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 839.14 (-1.82, -0.22%)
S&P Composite: 95.09 (-0.01, -0.01%)
Arms Index: 0.77

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	571	6.76
Declines	735	6.69
Unchanged	515	3.21
Total Volume		16.66

* 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 21, 1977	840.96	95.10	22.20
September 20, 1977	851.78	95.89	19.03
September 19, 1977	851.52	95.85	16.89
September 16, 1977	856.81	96.48	18.34
September 15, 1977	860.79	96.80	18.23
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