News stories from Friday December 23, 1977

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

A procession of tractors was driven into Plains, Ga., President Carter's hometown, for the second time this year by farmers protesting what they believe to be insufficient government price supports. Mr. Carter is in Plains for the Christmas holiday, but he stayed away from the demonstration. Instead, he agreed to meet with a delegation of four farmers this morning to hear their grievances. The meeting will take place at Mr. Carter's home. [New York Times] Detroit's auto makers reported a decline of 10.1 percent in new car deliveries for the selling period of Dec. 11 to 20. It was the fourth consecutive selling period in which sales had declined, and the only recent one in which sales of all four of the major manufacturers were down. But for the calendar year through Dec. 20, new car deliveries were 6.5 percent ahead of the same period a year ago, and with a report for the year's final sales period still to come, the industry is assured of a strong gain for the year. [New York Times] A deadlock among Senate-House conferees leaves unresolved a key issue of what price should be set for newly discovered natural gas and has placed the President's energy program in the balance, congressional sources said. The Senate delegation is split nine to nine between those favoring deregulation of natural gas prices and those favoring continued regulation. It seems certain that no energy bill will emerge from Congress before February, or more likely, March. [New York Times] The stock market flourished, continuing a rally that started Wednesday. Rising stocks on the New York Stock Exchange outnumbered declining ones by a 10 to 4 ratio. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 8.06 points to 829.87, bringing its total gain since Wednesday to 23½ points. [New York Times] The rumbles and blasts heard along the East Coast in recent weeks may have been caused by explosions of methane gas bubbles erupting through one or more faults under the sea. Methane is a compound of hydrogen and carbon. Dr. Thomas Gold, director of Cornell University's Center for Radio Physics and Space Research, has been developing a theory of worldwide methane eruptions. He believes such eruptions from deep within the earth have been a prime source of the carbon in all living things and as well as in the atmosphere and rocks. [New York Times] The dismissal of the government's mental health chief, Dr. Bertram Brown, was confirmed by Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, who said that while Dr. Brown had done a fine job, the program needed "fresh blood." Dr. Brown, a psychiatrist, had been the director of the National Institute of Mental Health since 1970. He was appointed as the institute's deputy director in 1960. The institute is a unit of H.E.W. [New York Times] President Carter's proposed executive order that would attempt to centralize the scattered United States electronic and photographic intelligence apparatus will leave important issues unresolved, administration officials say. The surveillance issues, they believe, concern the most efficient use of sophisticated and expensive intelligence-gathering equipment. The question they ask, given the capability to observe actions by hostile powers and potential enemies, but limited by resources and expenditures, is what does one survey? [New York Times] Prime Minister Menachem Begin's proposals for civil autonomy for Israeli-occupied Arab territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip include a council composed of Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinian Arabs, according to sources in Mr. Begin's Likud bloc. This plan, which may be offered to President Anwar Sadat by Mr. Begin at their meeting in Ismailia, was discussed by Mr. Begin with the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Israeli Parliament, as well as with his party. [New York Times] Egyptian officials predicted that Prime Minister Begin's proposals to President Sadat on Sunday would include a plan to give West Bank Palestinians interim self-rule for five years, and then let them vote on their future status. But experts close to the negotiations in Cairo said they did not know whether the voters would be allowed to vote for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. The sources doubt that Israel would permit such a choice. [New York Times] Israel and Egypt were urged to show sympathy for each other's political problems by the United States in messages sent through diplomatic channels to Tel Aviv and Cairo. The messages, administration officials said, also contained specific ideas on how to advance the negotiations and overcome differences on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and other issues on which the two sides are far apart. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 829.87 (+8.06, +0.98%)
S&P Composite: 94.69 (+0.89, +0.95%)
Arms Index: 0.51

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,053	13.90
Declines	413	2.77
Unchanged	401	3.41
Total Volume		20.08

* 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*
December 22, 1977	821.81	93.80	28.10
December 21, 1977	813.93	93.05	24.51
December 20, 1977	806.22	92.50	23.25
December 19, 1977	807.95	92.69	21.15
December 16, 1977	815.32	93.40	20.27
December 15, 1977	817.83	93.55	21.61
December 14, 1977	822.68	94.03	22.11
December 13, 1977	815.23	93.56	19.19
December 12, 1977	815.75	93.63	18.16
December 9, 1977	815.23	93.65	19.21