News stories from Tuesday December 27, 1977

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

Higher home mortgage rates are expected by spring, edging upward from the present 8½ to 9 percent interest rates depending on location, and many economists believe they will remain in that area for the foreseeable future. Pressure from continuing inflation while demand for homes remains strong tends to keep the rates high. [New York Times] Slow growth and rising unemployment may become permanent, the Organization for Economic Growth and Development warns, unless there is urgent expansionary action by West Germany and Japan. It predicts that the relatively rapid growth rate in the United States will swell its imports and push its current account deficit even higher than this year's, which is expected to set a record. [New York Times] Retailers rejoiced throughout the country as they reflected on sales records in store after store during the Christmas selling season. Sears, Roebuck, the nation's largest retailer, said its estimated gain was 14 percent. Korvettes reported sales up 10 percent with its New York store leading the way. For Henri Bendel, the increase was 30 percent. [New York Times] Stock prices declined slightly in slower trading, ending the rally during the three previous sessions. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 829.70 points, down 0.17. [New York Times] A three-year delay in its plan to operate the world's first floating nuclear power plant was announced by Public Service Electric and Gas Company of New Jersey. It said decreasing projected demand was the reason for postponing the beginning of work until 1988. The State Energy Commissioner called the decision wise but noted that his department's earlier decision to require the utility's stockholders to bear the full cost was a factor. [New York Times] President Carter promoted James McIntyre, his deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting director since the resignation of Bert Lance, to fill the directorship. A Georgia lawyer who was state budget director when Mr. Carter was Governor, he is considered more conservative in style than Mr. Lance and less of an intimate policy adviser. [New York Times] The first known black member of the Daughters of the American Revolution is a Detroit woman who decided to stay home after her son was born in 1975 and turned to tracing her ancestry as an intellectual exercise. Discovering a forefather who fought as a private in the Colonial army, she applied to the D.A.R., which once had a racist image, and was accepted. [New York Times] The C.I.A.'s efforts to mold world opinion over the last three decades led in some instances to the dissemination of false news reports in the United States, William Colby, former Director of Central Intelligence, said in testimony as the House began an inquiry into the propriety of relations between the C.I.A. and American and foreign reporters. In the past the C.I.A. occasionally warned American news organizations to ignore false accounts that it had generated, Mr. Colby said, but he added that he did not believe such warnings would any longer be held in confidence. [New York Times] President Anwar Sadat told the Egyptian people in a two-hour broadcast interview that while Israel had offered to return the entire Sinai, he would not back down from other demands -- full Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territories and the creation of a Palestinian state. He called Prime Minister Menachem Begin's proposal for limited self-rule for West Bank Palestinians insufficient but said it was the first offer Israel had ever made to them. Egypt's real battle, he said, is no longer for the Sinai but to build the country, become self-sufficient in food, to settle the desert and solve housing and transport problems. [New York Times] The Israeli cabinet heard Mr. Begin review his meeting with President Sadat amid growing criticism that it had fallen short of expectations. The four-hour session in Jerusalem was said to have brought no change in the Israeli peace proposal. Absent was Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, said to have gone abroad on a mission set before the meeting in Egypt. [New York Times] India's Congress Party split into two factions, one supporting former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who led it to defeat at the polls last March, and the other determined to block her attempts at a political comeback. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 829.70 (-0.17, -0.02%)
S&P Composite: 94.69 (0.00, 0.00%)
Arms Index: 0.93

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	649	6.07
Declines	769	6.71
Unchanged	469	3.97
Total Volume		16.75

* 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 23, 1977	829.87	94.69	20.08
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