News stories from Thursday February 9, 1978

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

Environmentalists and industrialists agreed on more than 200 ways that could help the nation shift from oil to coal as the prime source of energy. The National Coal Policy Project made public a summary of its recommendations that it said were environmentally tolerable and economically sound. The proposals were attacked, however, by some environmentalists who had declined to participate in the project. The critics said that some recommendations would weaken the strip mining and pollution control laws. [New York Times] An Ethics Committee investigation of Representatives Daniel Flood and Joshua Eilberg was requested by the House Republican leadership. The Republicans said, "allegations raised in the news media raise some serious questions which affect every member of Congress." [New York Times] Houston is the new promised land for the skilled middle class. The capital of the oil region might be experiencing a middle-class migration similar to California's in the 1950's and '60's. For most of the 1970's, white-collar workers have been migrating to Houston, generally following the companies that transferred there. They are being joined by Easterners and Middle Westerners, attracted by the climate and a prosperous economy. [New York Times] Stock prices reversed a strong two-day advance and declined amid selling that was set off by the failure of Senate conferees to reach a compromise on natural gas prices. The market had rallied on the hope that a compromise was near. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 4.83 points to 777.81, It had gained a total of 14 points on Tuesday and Wednesday. [New York Times] A Senate Banking Committee investigation of overseas payments by a subsidiary of Textron, Inc. will be aided by an expert from the S.E.C.'s enforcement division. The investigation has held up confirmation hearings on the appointment of G. William Miller, former chairman of Textron, now chairman-designate of the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Miller defended a previously undisclosed transfer of $2.9 million by Textron's Bell Helicopter division at a confirmation hearing Jan. 24. The 1973 transaction allegedly benefitted an Iranian general. [New York Times] The Senate Banking Committee unanimously concluded that New York "should be able to meet its financing needs and avoid bankruptcy after June 30 without further federal financial aid," upsetting the city's hopes for speedy congressional action on its request for help. A federal guarantee of a $2.25 billion long-term loan, the focus of Mayor Koch's financial program, is not necessary, the committee said in a formal report to the Senate. [New York Times] United States intelligence operations would be overhauled under legislation introduced by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Chief among the proposals in the 200-page legislative package are a prohibition against political assassinations, a limit on the scope of covert operations abroad and stricter protection of civil liberties against infringement. The legislation would also establish a director of national intelligence, and formalize a command structure suggested in President Carter's executive order last month. [New York Times] Canada ordered 11 Soviet diplomats and officials expelled and barred two others from returning. The government accused them all of plotting to penetrate the security apparatus of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada's equivalent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It said the Soviet representatives offered a member of the police agency "unlimited" funds for information on Canadian intelligence methods. [New York Times] Human rights are violated in all but a few non-Western countries, according to the administration's second annual report to Congress on human rights, a study of 105 countries that receive American aid or buy American weapons. The report found some improvement in human rights observance in Iran, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand. Israel was cited for allowing rights guarantees to be superseded by security considerations in the Arab territories occupied since the 1967 war, in spite of its parliamentary democracy. [New York Times] Ethiopian "counter-revolutionaries" appear to have been subdued by the government through executions and imprisonment. What the government calls the "red terror," which began as a response to the so-called "white terror" of an opposition group, is continuing, with daily executions, jailings and sentencing to camps in the countryside. Diplomats in Addis Ababa estimate that since mid-December more than 1,000 people -- many of them teenaged students -- have been killed. It is also believed that as many as 10,000 people have been arrested. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 777.81 (-4.85, -0.62%)
S&P Composite: 90.30 (-0.53, -0.58%)
Arms Index: 1.08

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	570	6.01
Declines	787	8.93
Unchanged	467	3.00
Total Volume		17.94

* 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 8, 1978	782.66	90.83	21.30
February 7, 1978	778.85	90.33	14.73
February 6, 1978	768.62	89.50	11.63
February 3, 1978	770.96	89.62	19.40
February 2, 1978	775.38	90.13	23.05
February 1, 1978	774.34	89.93	22.24
January 31, 1978	769.92	89.25	19.87
January 30, 1978	772.44	89.34	17.40
January 27, 1978	764.12	88.58	17.60
January 26, 1978	763.34	88.58	19.60