News stories from Thursday March 2, 1978

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

Declining to support the dollar further, President Carter said that its fall to record lows against the West German mark and the Swiss franc reflected an inadequate market assessment of its virtues. In a strong defense of the dollar, the President said that once certain things were understood about the attractiveness of American investment -- the leveling-off of American oil consumption and the convergence of international growth rates -- the dollar would be "in good shape." [New York Times] Abolishment of the Civil Service Commission was urged by President Carter. Merit would be more clearly rewarded and incompetence more swiftly penalized under a reorganization of the federal civil service system that the President proposed to Congress. Mr. Carter, noting that it was easier to promote and transfer an incompetent federal employee than to dismiss him, said that that was no way to run a farm, a factory or a government. [New York Times] G. William Miller's confirmation as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board was recommended by the Senate Banking Committee, 14 to 1. Senator William Proxmire, the committee's chairman, voted against the recommendation on the ground that Mr. Miller "is not qualified." He predicted, however, that the Senate would overwhelmingly approve the confirmation when it reaches the floor tomorrow. [New York Times] New York City would get federal guarantees up to 15 years for as much as $2 billion in long-term bonds under a federal financial aid plan that President Carter said was "very reasonable and very adequate." In presenting the plan to a House banking subcommittee, Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal warned that federal participation was based on a "major lending contribution by relevant local parties," meaning city and state pension funds, banks "and other local financial institutions." [New York Times] The imprisonment of F.B.I. officials who defied court orders was threatened by a federal judge in New York. Transcripts that were released contained a statement by Judge Thomas Griesa to lawyers representing the Justice Department in a $27 million suit by the Socialist Workers Party that he would reject government attempts to forfeit the case rather than disclose the names of informers. [New York Times] Compulsory retirement at age 65 in private industry would be abolished in most cases under legislation approved by House and Senate conferees. The conferees raised the age to 70 and eliminated any mandatory retirement age for federal employees who now must leave their jobs at age 70. [New York Times] The stock market's modest rally continued and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 3.12 points to 746.45. The most active issues were those of companies that have been involved in takeover negotiations. [New York Times] A former Iranian official who once promoted Bell Helicopter interests in Iran said that a decade ago he told three Bell executives that the chief of Iran's air force had a secret interest in Air Taxi, a company that Bell paid $2.9 million when it won a lucrative contract from the Iranian government. Hassan Safavi, a lawyer and economist who has held several government posts, said he told the Americans when they came to Teheran in 1967 that Gen. Mohammed Khatemi had a hidden interest in Air Taxi, despite the Shah's directive to government officials to end all business involvement. [New York Times] Charlie Chaplin's body was stolen from the Swiss cemetery where it was buried two months ago. The thieves' motive was not clear, but the police did not rule out ransom. A village resident who had helped with the burial said the coffin was so heavy that it would have taken four men to move it. [New York Times] An interim Rhodesian government that would place Rhodesia under black-majority rule by the end of the year has been agreed upon, according to Prime Minister Ian Smith and three black nationalist leaders. This accord and two others reached earlier -- on a constitution and on the composition of the new nation's armed forces -- were expected to be signed tomorrow by Mr. Smith, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole and Senator Jeremiah Chirau. [New York Times] President Tito of Yugoslavia is disturbed by present trends in East-West relations and what he described in an unusually candid interview with James Reston as the "deadlock" in the Middle East negotiations and the fighting in the Horn Of Africa. He will discuss these and other questions with President Carter at the White House next week. [New York Times] Human rights were not mentioned in the statement agreed on at the end of the Belgrade conference on East-West cooperation. The statement is supposed to sum up a review of how well 33 European governments, the United States and Canada are carrying out accords on European security and cooperation signed at Helsinki in 1975. The statement ended a two-month deadlock and came after the United States and its allies gave up hope of winning any human rights pledges. The Soviet Union had blocked all attempts to mention the issue in the statement. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 746.45 (+3.12, +0.42%)
S&P Composite: 87.32 (+0.13, +0.15%)
Arms Index: 0.75

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	743	10.38
Declines	570	6.01
Unchanged	535	3.89
Total Volume		20.28

* 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*
March 1, 1978	743.33	87.19	21.01
February 28, 1978	742.12	87.04	19.75
February 27, 1978	748.35	87.72	20.00
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