News stories from Thursday October 6, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A minimum-wage increase from the current $2.30 an hour to $2.65 in 1978, with yearly increases to $3.40 by 1981, was approved by the Senate, 76 to 14. The House has approved a $2.65 minimum wage for 1978, with increases to $3.05 by 1980, 10 cents less than the Senate plan for that year. Differences are to be resolved in a House-Senate conference. [New York Times]
- Organized labor won a major victory on Capitol Hill after months of intensive lobbying. By a vote of 257 to 163, the House adopted a series of amendments to the 1935 national labor law designed chiefly to eliminate hurdles to unions' flagging efforts to organize workers. The bill is strongly backed by the Carter administration. The Senate is not expected to act on the measure until early next year. [New York Times]
- Concordes can start flights to Kennedy International Airport at once, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled. But the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said that it would seek a stay by an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to keep the ban against the supersonic jet in effect pending a decision by the High Court on whether it would hear an appeal. [New York Times]
- All major taxes to conserve oil and natural gas that were proposed by President Carter would be eliminated from a bill under a tentative agreement by the Senate Finance Committee. The unusual maneuver was devised by Senator Russell Long, chairman of the committee, to bypass further consideration of energy taxes by the Senate committee because of the hostile attitude there toward the President's program. To avoid wholesale revisions in the program, Senator Long, Democrat of Louisiana, decided to take a skeleton energy tax bill to the Senate, which would probably adopt it, and then to a conference with the House, which has endorsed virtually the entire presidential program. [New York Times]
- Curbs on steel imports would not "significantly improve" the economic position of the nation's steel industry, according to a report by the Council on Wage and Price Stability. The domestic industry has been subjected to "aggressive price competition" from European and Japanese mills, but, the report added, even if domestic production rises to compensate fully for import cuts, the impact on domestic output and jobs would be small. [New York Times]
- Wholesale prices rose by 0.5 percent last month, posting their biggest increase since last April. The advance was attributed to a leveling off after a large drop in wholesale food prices in the previous four months and to a rise in prices of industrial products because of the sharp increase of housing starts to the highest level in 11 months. [New York Times]
- Stock prices rebounded with the help of reports of strong chain-store sales in September. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 4.76 points to close at 842.08. [New York Times]
- A written link between F.B.I. headquarters and two previously undisclosed burglaries by its agents in New Jersey has been found by federal prosecutors, law enforcement sources said. They reported the discovery of an F.B.I. memorandum from Washington to the Newark field office empowering agents to "do anything possible" to apprehend Judith Flatley, who was being sought on a charge involving Weathermen antiwar activities. [New York Times]
- The Nobel Literature Prize was awarded to Vicente Aleixandre of Spain, a surrealist poet little known outside the Spanish-speaking world. The choice by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm was unexpected. The 79-year-oid poet, a sickly recluse, won over such world famed authors as Doris Lessing of Britain, Gunter Grass of West Germany and Yasar Kemal of Turkey, who had been considered front-runners for the award. [New York Times]
- A confrontation was avoided by the United States and the Soviet Union in their opening statements at the 35-nation East-West conference in Belgrade to review advances in human rights and European security and economic cooperation. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 842.08 (+4.68, +0.56%)
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* |
| October 5, 1977 | 837.40 | 95.68 | 18.30 |
| October 4, 1977 | 842.08 | 96.03 | 20.85 |
| October 3, 1977 | 851.96 | 96.74 | 19.46 |
| September 30, 1977 | 847.11 | 96.53 | 21.17 |
| September 29, 1977 | 840.09 | 95.85 | 21.16 |
| September 28, 1977 | 834.72 | 95.31 | 17.96 |
| September 27, 1977 | 835.85 | 95.24 | 19.08 |
| September 26, 1977 | 841.65 | 95.38 | 18.23 |
| September 23, 1977 | 839.14 | 95.04 | 18.76 |
| September 22, 1977 | 839.14 | 95.09 | 16.66 |