News stories from Monday March 13, 1978

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

White House lobbyists are pushing for passage of the Panama Canal treaties, and the administration has made some moves that will be welcomed by Senators who say that they have not made up their minds on the treaties. The White House quietly changed its position on the $2.3 billion emergency farm bill, for example, to conform to the wishes of a Senator whose vote it is wooing. The administration had formerly opposed the bill as inflationary, but it indicated that it was taking no position on the bill, sponsored by Senator Herman Talmadge, Georgia Democrat, one of the few Senators uncommitted on the treaties. [New York Times] Union miners ignored the Taft-Hartley Act back-to-work order, but the United Mine Workers and coal industry were reported to be nearer agreement on a new settlement proposal that will be put forward tomorrow. Attorney General Griffin Bell told United States attorneys in the coal fields to "consider arrests of any persons threatening to interfere with coal miners returning to work under the court's order." [New York Times] Work on 16 nuclear submarines may stop in Groton, Conn. next month because of a dispute between the General Dynamics Corporation and the Navy over design changes and cost overruns of more than $544 million. The submarines are being built by the General Dynamics Electric Boat Division. A stoppage would put nearly 14,000 employees out of work at Groton and at Quonset Point, R.I., where components are manufactured. General Dynamics charged that the Navy had "materially breached" its contracts by imposing 35,000 changes in design and specifications that resulted in production delays of two to three years and soaring costs that the Navy has not paid. [New York Times] Support for the dollar was announced in Washington and Bonn. The steps taken by the two governments will add a relatively modest $2.74 billion in West German marks to the American reserve of foreign currencies that can be used to prop up the dollar on international exchanges. Washington, in addition, indicated its willingness to borrow "as necessary" up to $5 billion from the International Monetary Fund. On the foreign exchange markets, however, the dollar continued to slide. [New York Times] Stock prices gained slightly despite the erosion of mach of the early advance brought on by investors' skepticism over the agreement between Washington and Bonn to support the dollar. The Dow Jones industrial average, which was up nearly 6 points early in the session, closed with an increase of only 1.38 points, at 759.96. Advancing stocks outnumbered declining issues by a 7 to 6 ratio. [New York Times] Oil imports are declining even while congressional conferees struggle to produce an energy program that would make this country less dependent on foreign oil. Oil analysts predict that the nation will consume less foreign oil this year than in 1977, perhaps 5 percent less. [New York Times] Israel will "cut off the evil arm" of the Palestinian guerrilla organization responsible for the weekend raid in which more than 30 civilians were killed, Prime Minister Menachem Begin said. He told Parliament that "we will do what we have to do." The Prime Minister accused the Soviet Union of complicity in the attack because the guerrillas had Soviet weapons, and he called on all Western countries housing offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization to close them and expel its representatives.Retaliation by Israel for the Palestinian raid might ruin chances for Middle East negotiations, according to the State Department. Administration officials said privately that the new tensions have reduced any chances for much progress in the near future in the negotiations. [New York Times] Some Palestinians expressed pride over the raid in Israel, and a P.L.O. spokesman warned of more raids to come. Meanwhile, fear of an Israeli retaliation was apparent in the 13 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and the towns and villages of the southern border, which have frequently been the targets of Israeli reprisals. Schools were closed and many people were reported to have moved to the camps, which have air raid shelters. [New York Times] More than 70 hostages were seized by South Moluccan gunmen in a government building in Assen, the Netherlands. The gunmen demanded the release of comrades in Dutch jails and a plane to take them all out of the country. A government spokesman said the gunmen had set a deadline of 2 P.M. tomorrow. [New York Times] France's left opposition parties reached an agreement to run common candidates in the final legislative voting on Sunday. The center-right coalition parties, through mutual agreement, will back a single candidate in each legislative district in the final round. If the Communists, Socialists and Left Radicals had failed to reach a similar agreement, they would have split voters favoring the left and faced certain defeat in the runoff vote. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 759.96 (+1.38, +0.18%)
S&P Composite: 88.95 (+0.07, +0.08%)
Arms Index: 0.99

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	787	11.59
Declines	603	8.78
Unchanged	457	3.70
Total Volume		24.07

* 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 10, 1978	758.58	88.88	27.09
March 9, 1978	750.00	87.89	21.82
March 8, 1978	750.87	87.84	22.04
March 7, 1978	746.79	87.36	19.90
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