News stories from Monday February 27, 1978

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

Consumer prices rose sharply in January, led by food, housing and medical care costs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a rise of eight-tenths of 1 percent in its Consumer Price Index following several months of relatively small increases. January's was roughly double the average monthly rises since July. The increase contributed to a steep drop in the purchasing power of non-farm workers. [New York Times] The Supreme Court rejected an attempt by consumers and municipalities to roll back an annual increase of $1.5 billion in national rates for natural gas. The justices, without dissenting, declined to review a decision upholding a new rate schedule approved in 1976 by the Federal Power Commission. [New York Times] Braniff Airways, caught in a dispute over fares between the British and American governments, seems to have lost its chance to begin Dallas to London flights as scheduled for Wednesday. When British authorities refused to approve Braniff's low-cost flights to London, the Civil Aeronautics Board In Washington instructed its staff to prepare a plan to take reciprocal action against British airlines. [New York Times] Another allegation of questionable payments by Bell Helicopter, a subsidiary of Textron Inc., whose chairman, G. William Miller, is chairman-designate of the Federal Reserve Board, is being investigated by the S.E.C. This allegation is concerned with commission payments that accompanied the sale of helicopters to Jamaica in the early 1970s, and arose from a civil suit filed in 1974 in Federal District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, by Bell's former sales agent in Jamaica. The suit charged Bell with monopolizing helicopter sales in Jamaica, restraint of trade, and commercial bribery. [New York Times] Stock prices weakened when the government reported an inflationary sharp rise in consumer prices in January. The Dow Jones industrial average lost its early morning lead and closed down 7.89 points to 748.35, another 34-month low. The market's early gains reflected a stronger dollar in foreign exchange markets, and the tentative coal strike settlement. [New York Times] American and British research officials announced the development of a nuclear fuel recycling system that would prevent the diversion of plutonium from future breeder power plants into weaponry. Concern about such diversion led President Carter last year to postpone indefinitely efforts to recover plutonium from existing types of nuclear plants and to propose halting the multibillion-dollar effort in the United States to commercialize plutonium-fueled breeders. [New York Times] Egypt has restricted Palestinian privileges granted for more than 20 years to those living in Egypt. An announcement said the Palestinians would be treated the same as other Arab aliens. This reprisal for the murder of a prominent Cairo editor by Palestinian terrorists and Palestinian criticism of President Anwar Sadat was announced in Parliament by Prime Minister Mamdouh Salem. Since 1956, the 30,000 Palestinians in Egypt have had virtually the same status as Egyptians except for the rights to vote and hold office. They have had the same legal rights and employment and business opportunities and had been given preferential admission to universities. [New York Times] Indira Gandhi has won a solid power base in southern India, apparently insuring that she will continue to be a formidable figure in Indian politics. Returns from Saturday's elections show that the new political party formed by Mrs. Gandhi last month won an overwhelming victory in a second southern state, Andhra Pradesh. Her party earlier was similarly victorious in the state of Karnataka. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 748.35 (-7.89, -1.04%)
S&P Composite: 87.72 (-0.77, -0.87%)
Arms Index: 1.88

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	536	4.14
Declines	850	12.31
Unchanged	483	3.54
Total Volume		19.99

* 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*
February 24, 1978	756.24	88.49	22.51
February 23, 1978	750.95	87.64	18.73
February 22, 1978	749.05	87.56	18.45
February 21, 1978	749.31	87.59	21.86
February 17, 1978	752.69	87.96	18.50
February 16, 1978	753.29	88.08	21.58
February 15, 1978	761.69	88.83	20.17
February 14, 1978	765.16	89.04	20.47
February 13, 1978	774.43	89.86	16.81
February 10, 1978	775.99	90.08	19.48