News stories from Tuesday November 22, 1977

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

A modest inflation rate increase in October of only three-tenths of 1 percent, the third straight month at that level, was reported by the government. The Consumer Price Index was a further indication that the economy remains in pretty vigorous shape. Economists said the news should be good for retailers by strengthening both consumer confidence and actual spending in the holiday season. [New York Times] Concorde airliner service began at Kennedy International Airport, which the French and British operators of the supersonic aircraft have long deemed necessary to any hope of turning a profit. After a 19-month delay caused by a local anti-noise regulation that was overturned in court, there were only orderly groups of pickets at the airport entrance to protest the service. A federal ruling authorizes a 16-month trial of the Concorde flights. [New York Times] Irate supporters in Congress of President Carter's energy legislation denounced Secretary of Energy James Schlesinger for some of the comments he made in the course of his news conference on Monday. By indicating possible compromises on higher natural gas prices and incentives to oil producers, they said, he had weakened the negotiating position of his backers in Congress. [New York Times] Stock prices pushed higher in active trading, encouraged by a smaller-than-expected October increase in consumer prices, pointing to a favorable trend on the inflation front. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 6.41 points to finish at 842.52. [New York Times] A ban on cigars and pipes aboard commercial airliners was voted by the Civil Aeronautics Board. The board added that it might eventually ban cigarettes as well. The procedure for banning all smoking will take until next summer at the earliest, a spokesman said. [New York Times] Chicago's City Council voted unanimously to set up a special committee to investigate the controversy over charges by a dismissed aide that Mayor Michael Bilandic conspired with a taxi company official to get fares increased. The resolution requires the committee to employ an auditing concern other than the two already involved in the controversy. The City Council action is in addition to inquiries by the Federal Trade Commission, a federal grand jury and the State's Attorney. [New York Times] Fast food fare such as tacos, pizza, french fries, cheeseburgers and supershakes will be introduced in two New York City high schools next year and a third in 1979. The Board of Education said the aim was to appeal to student tastes and to reduce waste. If the program proves successful, the board hopes to expand it to other schools. The foods will be nutritionally enriched to meet federal requirements. School lunches here and in other cities have long been criticized as nutritionally inadequate. [New York Times] Polaroid shipments to South Africa have ended because the company learned that its distributor there had been secretly selling film to the South African government in violation of a 1971 agreement, A Polaroid spokesman said the issue was particularly sensitive because the film was being used to make pictures for the controversial passbooks for blacks. The company is believed to be the first American concern to end trade for ideological reasons. [New York Times] Israel is now convinced, according to Deputy Prime Minister Yigael Yadin, that President Anwar Sadat of Egypt genuinely wants peace. As a consequence, authoritative sources in Jerusalem said, Israel has now accepted the need to rethink its whole position in preparation for peace negotiations. They added that when Mr. Sadat spoke of "hard and drastic decisions" facing the Israelis, he was actually echoing what Prime Minister Menachem Begin and others had told him privately. Mr. Yadin said the government felt it had convinced Mr. Sadat that Israel was equally determined for peace. [New York Times] Jordan's Minister of Information, stressing that his government's official reaction to President Sadat's peace mission was yet to be made public, said the trip had achieved its purpose, opening the road to progress toward a Middle East peace settlement. His statement appeared to leave only Syria, of the three main so-called "confrontation" countries, opposing an end to war with Israel. [New York Times] The cyclone and flooding that struck in southern India took 10,000 lives by official estimate. Authorities are concerned at the threat of cholera posed by contaminated water. It was reported that the state government of Andhra Pradesh had early warning of the cyclone but took few steps to save lives, unlike neighboring Tamil Nadu, which evacuated most coastal areas before an earlier storm of nearly equal intensity, and lost fewer than 500 dead. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 842.52 (+6.41, +0.77%)
S&P Composite: 96.09 (+0.84, +0.88%)
Arms Index: 0.60

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,062	18.40
Declines	432	4.50
Unchanged	393	5.70
Total Volume		28.60

* 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*
November 21, 1977	836.11	95.25	20.11
November 18, 1977	835.76	95.33	23.93
November 17, 1977	831.86	95.16	25.11
November 16, 1977	837.06	95.45	24.95
November 15, 1977	842.78	95.93	27.47
November 14, 1977	838.36	95.32	23.22
November 11, 1977	845.89	95.98	35.26
November 10, 1977	832.55	94.71	31.98
November 9, 1977	818.43	92.98	21.33
November 8, 1977	816.27	92.46	19.21