News stories from Thursday January 26, 1978

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

One of the worst blizzards in memory virtually paralyzed the Middle West, the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley, marooning thousands of people and killing snow-trapped motorists and pedestrians. Many people in the Middle West were without heat or electricity. Meanwhile, tornadoes, high winds and snow struck the Eastern seaboard, cutting off heat and electricity in many places in the Southeast. [New York Times] Strong radiation was discovered by an American-Canadian air search team in Canada's Northwest Territories, where a Soviet space satellite with a nuclear reactor broke up early Tuesday after re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The radiation was described by officials as too heavy to have come from natural sources. It emanated from the barren tundra 200 miles west of Baker Lake, a fishing settlement about 1,000 miles north of Winnipeg. [New York Times] Federal abortion aid would be given to needy victims of rape or incest, provided that the police or a health agency was notified within 60 days of the attack. The new regulations, announced by Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, define abortion-aid legislation enacted in Congress last month. [New York Times] It should happen at 2:36 tomorrow afternoon: For the second time within a decade, the gross national product of the United States will reach its second trillion dollars in value, according to Kerwin Stallings, a Morgan Guaranty Trust Company economist (also a vice president) who has figured out that the second trillion will be reached tomorrow afternoon. The first $1 trillion measuring the national productivity rate of goods and services was reached seven years ago. About two-thirds of the second trillion has been due to "inflation, inflation, inflation," said another economist. The $2 trillion level is not very important economically, Mr. Stallings said. "I guess it just reminds us how awfully big the economy is." [New York Times] Stock prices dropped sharply with the report that the nation's productivity rate was sluggish in last year's fourth quarter. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 9.10 points and closed at 763.34, its lowest level since April 8, 1975. Another market depressant was an anticipation of a government announcement of a growth in the money supply, usually a precursor of higher interest rates. This was confirmed just after trading closed by the Federal Reserve, which announced that the money supply had increased $800 million in the latest week. [New York Times] Egypt and Israel are close to an agreement on principles for an overall Middle East settlement, according to American officials. They said that tentative plans were being discussed for separate trips to Washington by President Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister Menachem Begin. It was virtually certain, they said, that the two nations would resume talks in Cairo next week. [New York Times] Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan of Israel said that an agreement with Egypt on a declaration of principles relating to the Palestinian issue was "within reach." He told students at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan that the declaration would be approved unless the Egyptians "try artificially to delay or avoid it." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 763.34 (-9.10, -1.18%)
S&P Composite: 88.58 (-0.81, -0.91%)
Arms Index: 1.44

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	461	4.45
Declines	893	12.37
Unchanged	465	2.78
Total Volume		19.60

* 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*
January 25, 1978	772.44	89.39	18.69
January 24, 1978	771.57	89.25	18.69
January 23, 1978	770.70	89.24	19.38
January 20, 1978	776.94	89.89	7.58
January 19, 1978	778.67	90.09	21.50
January 18, 1978	786.30	90.56	21.39
January 17, 1978	779.02	89.88	19.36
January 16, 1978	771.74	89.43	18.76
January 13, 1978	775.73	89.69	18.01
January 12, 1978	778.15	89.82	22.73