News stories from Tuesday March 7, 1978

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

A bill to seize the struck coal mines if the Taft-Hartley remedies now in motion do not work will be sought in Congress by the Carter administration, officials in Washington said. The disclosure that temporary government seizure remains a possibility reflected rising tension over the prospect that militant miners seem ready to flout a Taft-Hartley court order, expected soon, ordering them to return to work for 80 days while bargaining resumes.The extent of a coal shortage is not clear despite repeated predictions by administration and private economists that the long strike would soon cause power cutbacks and massive layoffs. Observers are not certain about how quickly and broadly an impact that continued depressed levels of production will cause. They cite inconclusive data and unexpectedly effective measures by utilities to save coal. [New York Times] Creation of a "national development bank" to spur businesses to settle in depressed areas is expected to be proposed by the Carter administration later this month. The President is expected to recommend, as a major part of his urban policy a program of outright grants, low-cost direct loans, loan guarantees and other incentives for businesses to remain in or move to areas of high economic distress to create jobs. The cost is expected to be $11 billion over three years. [New York Times] An impasse over natural gas pricing has been broken, according to Senate energy conferees. They said that the three-month deadlock had been removed with a plan to free gas of price controls in 1985 after allowing price increases of 64 percent, accounting for inflation, in the interim. [New York Times] Stock prices rose with investor confidence buoyed by a rally in International Business Machines, Wall Street's favorite glamour issue. I.B.M. rose 3⅞ points to 244¾ in active trading in the wake of a plunge Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 4.07 points to 746.79. [New York Times] Nominating the first woman to the Federal Reserve Board is being considered by the Carter administration. It has asked its women economic officers to compile lists of qualified candidates, and the search is being managed by a task force headed by Vice President Mondale. [New York Times] A union campaign against J. P. Stevens & Company is apparently showing results. James Finley, board chairman of the mammoth, strongly anti-union textile company, said he was being forced to leave the board of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, which holds more than $1 billion in union trust and pension funds. [New York Times] A new Israeli government dispute was disclosed. Ezer Weizman, the Defense Minister, told Prime Minister Menachem Begin by telephone Monday that he would cut short his mission to the United States, return to Israel and resign if work was begun against his orders on a new civilian settlement in the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River. However, Mr. Weizman told newsmen that he spoke again with Mr. Begin today and it was agreed that all expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Arab lands would halt until after Mr. Begin confers with President Carter next week. [New York Times] Rhodesian forces entered Zambia and killed at least 38 guerrilla soldiers belonging to the army of Joshua Nkomo, the exiled nationalist leader, the Rhodesian government announced. The raid could complicate efforts to win support for the accord for black majority rule concluded last week. Rhodesia, confirming earlier Zambian reports, said that its troops had crossed the Zambezi River and struck at a guerrilla base. The communique said that all Rhodesian troops had returned to Rhodesian soil and that one government soldier had been killed. Zambia said its forces had shot down six Rhodesian planes. [New York Times] India acted wrongly when it annexed the small Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim in 1975, Prime Minister Morarji Desai said in an interview in New Delhi. But, the Indian leader said, "I cannot undo it now." [New York Times] Many in the French middle class are uncharacteristically leaning to the left. Largely because of success in attracting younger voters of all social backgrounds, the leftist parties, while holding their appeal with the blue-collar class, have drawn enough middle-class support to give them a potential majority in the critical national legislative elections Sunday, according to polls that show center-right parties trailing by 6 to 8 percentage points. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 746.79 (+4.07, +0.55%)
S&P Composite: 87.36 (+0.46, +0.53%)
Arms Index: 0.57

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	847	12.41
Declines	512	4.31
Unchanged	486	3.18
Total Volume		19.90

* 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 6, 1978	742.72	86.90	17.23
March 3, 1978	747.31	87.45	20.12
March 2, 1978	746.45	87.32	20.29
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