News stories from Tuesday February 21, 1978

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

Major coal companies rejected as a model for a strike settlement an accord announced Monday between the United Mine Workers and the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Company. However, negotiations between the major operators and the union resumed. [New York Times] Offshore drilling for oil and natural gas near New Jersey is expected to begin in a few weeks as a result of the Supreme Court's refusal to hear appeals in the case. The federal government sold exploration rights more than 18 months ago to 13 companies for $1.13 billion, but legal challenges by municipalities and environmentalists had blocked drilling. The exploration would be the first off the East Coast and would likely be followed by drilling off Cape Cod and Georgia. [New York Times] Stock prices fell again amid a new rise in interest rates that added to the market's worries, and the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled to another 34-month low. Showing its eighth consecutive decline, the Dow average lost 3.38 points to 749.31, finishing just below the critical 750 mark. [New York Times] Unless federal aid to New York City is continued, the city will be $289 million short of cash in July and will have to default on its obligations, according to City Comptroller Harrison Goldin, who testified before a House banking subcommittee. [New York Times] North Carolina is staggering under an avalanche of criticism. The state has long been viewed as the most progressive and enlightened in the South. Gov. James Hunt, elected as a New South liberal, recently told reporters he was concerned about North Carolina's "image" and "good name." He was speaking specifically about the notoriety surrounding the case of the so-called Wilmington 10, nine black activists -- the 10th has been paroled -- who have touched off an international furor and gained prestigious backing with their charge that they are political prisoners thrown into jail for civil rights activities. [New York Times] Panama's leader ignored drug dealing by his brother and other government officials, a Senate Intelligence Committee report asserted. But an edited version of the report said charges that Gen. Omar Torrijos was personally involved in narcotics traffic were "second-hand and of varying reliability." Meanwhile, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment charging the general's brother with smuggling 155 pounds of heroin on a flight from Panama to New York in 1971. [New York Times] Moscow's biggest trading partner is now West Germany. The Germans have the kind of machinery and know-how the Russians want and go after the Soviet market aggressively. The Germans also have a reputation for dependability and craftsmanship. Ironically, Vladimir Lenin wrote in a 1916 pamphlet that the German electro-technical giant A.E.G. was one of the "huge" combines among "the capitalists" that "divide the world." [New York Times] Ethiopia has assured President Carter that its forces will not invade Somalia or interfere in the internal affairs of any neighboring countries, the White House said. It said that the "personal assurances" by the head of Ethiopia's military government had been conveyed by the head of a presidential mission to Addis Ababa. [New York Times] The chief of the Egyptian commando unit that fought with Cypriot troops when it tried to storm a hijacked airliner in Cyprus Sunday said he had begun the assault because negotiations with the hijackers were being "unnecessarily prolonged." He said that after his plane had landed he waited for 90 minutes to let Cypriot officials persuade the two hijackers to release their 12 hostages, then "stormed the Cypriot plane and released the hostages after the gunmen surrendered."Cyprus urged Egypt to help restore friendly ties. Cypriot President Spyros Kyprianou urged Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to meet with him to try to repair relations between their countries, shattered by the shootout when 15 Egyptian commandos were killed by Cypriot forces. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 749.31 (-3.38, -0.45%)
S&P Composite: 87.59 (-0.37, -0.42%)
Arms Index: 1.19

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	496	5.82
Declines	925	12.89
Unchanged	447	3.18
Total Volume		21.89

* 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 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
February 9, 1978	777.81	90.30	17.94
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