News stories from Monday October 17, 1977

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

Saccharin would not be banned for 18 months under a delay overwhelmingly approved by the House. The Senate approved the postponement last month, but, unlike the House, it would require a label warning that the dietetic sweetener might be injurious to health. The Food and Drug Administration had sought the ban after a study found that rats fed huge amounts of saccharin had developed cancer. [New York Times] A House-Senate conference to reconcile widely differing drafts for energy legislation meets tomorrow in the showplace Senate Caucus Room. Energy conservation will be the opening topic in the presence of cameras, reporters and competing lobbyists. [New York Times] CBS replaced its top television executives in an extensive management shakeup that follows the network's drop in viewer ratings. The chief victims of the sweeping reorganization were John Schneider, president of the broadcast group, and Robert Wussler, the network president. Both were given new positions to make way for a new team headed by Gene Jankowski, who replaces Mr. Schneider, and James Rosenfield, who takes over as network chief. [New York Times] Arrests on arson charges after a Massachusetts inquiry into an alleged arson ring operating in the Boston area included former officials of the state fire marshal's office and the Boston arson squad, State Attorney General Francis Bellotti said that almost $6 million for property loss in 35 fires had been fraudulently collected by the 33-member ring, including arsonists, property owners, real estate speculators, insurance men, public adjusters, lawyers and law enforcement officials. [New York Times] The Concorde was cleared for trial flights at once to Kennedy International Airport, under a ruling by the United States Supreme Court. British Airways and Air France said that, barring a legal maneuver that few thought could cause much delay, the first non-passenger flight of the supersonic airliner would be made Wednesday. The trial period is to last 16 months, and the first regular passenger service was set to begin Nov. 22. But there was still an outside chance that the Port Authority could bar that if it could devise a new noise rule that the courts would not deem discriminatory. [New York Times] A work rule for welfare recipients cleared the New Jersey legislature and is expected to be signed soon by Governor Byrne. Under the terms of the bill, 16,000 able-bodied adults on welfare who do not have dependent children would be required to work about 48 hours a month at public-service jobs to receive benefits. [New York Times] Toll-free traffic on inland waterways since the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 may be modified as a result of a dispute over rebuilding the Mississippi River's busiest locks and biggest bottleneck near St. Louis. President Carter has opposed the reconstruction unless it is tied to a river tax on commercial users, and the House has passed such a bill, placing a tax of 4 cents a gallon on fuel bought by users of the 25,000-mile system. [New York Times] Stock prices generally eased in slow trading, but merger offers sent several issues surging higher, with Alcon Laboratories, the volume leader, gaining 9 points. The Dow Jones industrial average drifted downward 1.30 points to 820.34. [New York Times] West German commandos freed all 86 hostages unharmed after storming a hijacked Lufthansa airliner on an airport runway in Mogadishu, Somalia, 90 minutes before a threatened massacre deadline, the Bonn government announced. It said that the four terrorists who had commandeered the jet in a five-day, 6,000-mile journey had been killed. The terrorists had threatened to blow up the jet and the hostages unless 11 jailed terrorists were released. A Bonn government spokesman appealed to the kidnappers of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, an industrialist seized six weeks ago, to release him. [New York Times] A planned sale of planes to Saudi Arabia is being reconsidered by the Carter administration because of growing congressional opposition. The White House had proposed selling 60 advanced F-15 supersonic craft to the Saudis, but government sources said it is now studying a proposal to offer them F-16 jet fighters, which are viewed more as defensive planes that would he more difficult to deploy against Israelis than the F-15. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 820.34 (-1.30, -0.16%)
S&P Composite: 93.47 (-0.09, -0.10%)
Arms Index: 0.75

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	553	6.70
Declines	848	7.75
Unchanged	465	2.89
Total Volume		17.34

* 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*
October 14, 1977	821.64	93.56	20.41
October 13, 1977	818.17	93.46	23.87
October 12, 1977	823.98	94.04	22.44
October 11, 1977	832.38	94.93	18.11
October 10, 1977	840.26	95.75	10.58
October 7, 1977	840.35	95.97	16.25
October 6, 1977	842.08	96.05	18.49
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