News stories from Wednesday March 15, 1978

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

The Panama Canal treaties gained support after a day of intense administration lobbying. Senate backers said they had enough votes to win tomorrow's crucial roll-call on the first pact, the neutrality treaty. [New York Times] Booms were linked to the Concorde. The director of the Federation of American Scientists said that new observations supported his thesis that many of the mysterious loud booms heard along the East Coast in recent months were connected with flights of the supersonic jetliner. [New York Times] Early action to raise fuel prices by imposing fees or quotas on oil imports should be taken by President Carter if Congress fails to approve his energy program soon, G. William Miller, the new chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, said. In congressional testimony, Mr. Miller said he favored an import fee and that Congress should give the President authority "to scale it as necessary" to build foreign confidence in the dollar. [New York Times] Japan cut its official discount rate in an effort to aid the country's flagging economy. The Bank of Japan announced a reduction in the rate of three-quarters of 1 percentage point to 3.5 percent. the lowest rate since the 3.29 percent in 1946. [New York Times] Stock prices moved slightly lower in slower trading amid investors' concern over Israel's invasion of Lebanon. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 3.98 points lower at 758.58. [New York Times] Israel routed Palestinian guerrillas from at least seven strategic strongholds in southern Lebanon all along Israel's northern frontier. Prime Minister Menachem Begin said the Israelis would remain until assured of border security. The land, sea and air operations continued as Israel acquired what a military leader called a "security belt" 63 miles long and up to six miles into Lebanese territory. Defense Minister Ezer Weizman told reporters "We shall continue to clear the area -- prevent the area from being attack positions against us as long as we find it necessary." The offensive, the biggest Israel has ever launched against the Palestine Liberation Organization, also involved air strikes at Palestinian camps far north of the Israeli border, including at least two near Beirut. An army spokesman said that one base was used by Arab raiders who entered Israel Saturday and killed more than 30 Israeli civilians.Many families fled in panic from populated areas of southern Lebanon, under bombardment by Israeli planes, gunboats and artillery. Many of the Palestinians and Lebanese carried only small bundles of blankets and clothing. Young Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas vowed to "inflict as many casualties as possible" as they retreated in the face of heavy odds. [New York Times] The United States was sympathetic to Israel's action. But Secretary of State Cyrus Vance acknowledged that the Israeli invasion and the Palestinian raid that precipitated it had raised "impediments to the peace process" and officials in Washington said that the dim chances for diplomatic efforts for peace in the Middle East seemed more remote. [New York Times] Egypt denounced the Israeli action against Palestinian guerrillas as genocide and aggression. Foreign Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Kamel told reporters that "the Israeli invasion aims at the complete annihilation of the Palestinian people" and was "a flagrant violation" of Lebanon's sovereignty. He asked the United States, Britain, France and West Germany to intervene at once to stop "aggression." Appeals for international aid to get Israeli forces to withdraw from Lebanon were also made by the Lebanese and Syrian governments. Both asked action by the major powers. [New York Times] Moscow's stand on Cuban forces in Ethiopia is harder than what Washington reporters were told at the State Department last week. The Soviet Union has given little sign that it is ready to link the end of Somali-Ethiopian fighting with cuts in Soviet advisers and Cuban forces, government officials said. They added that Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin had refused to make commitments about the Soviet-Cuban presence in Ethiopia. [New York Times] A sterner Soviet mood toward criticism was indicated by an announcement by Moscow that Mstislav Rostropovich, the expatriate cellist and conductor, had been deprived of his Soviet citizenship for "unpatriotic activity." The decree also applies to his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, the soprano. Mr. Rostropovich had stated his intention to stay abroad until the Soviet Union gives artists full freedom. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 758.58 (-3.98, -0.52%)
S&P Composite: 89.12 (-0.23, -0.26%)
Arms Index: 0.89

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	685	9.96
Declines	709	9.16
Unchanged	470	4.22
Total Volume		23.34

* 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 14, 1978	762.56	89.35	24.30
March 13, 1978	759.96	88.95	24.07
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