News stories from Monday March 27, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Carter departs tomorrow on a seven-day, 14,000-mile journey to four nations in South America and Africa, He will visit Venezuela, Brazil, Nigeria and Liberia to demonstrate the administration's interest in the developing countries. [New York Times]
- Aid for the nation's declining cities was proposed by President Carter through a broad series of job programs, tax incentives, grants, public works, and a fundamental "retargeting" of many federal programs. Mr. Carter proposed 160 improvements in 38 existing federal programs to make them more responsive to urban needs, especially among blacks and the poor. [New York Times]
- The coal industry faces an upheaval as a consequence of the 112-day strike. It cost about 120 million tons of lost production, possibly as much as $2 billion in lost sales and perhaps $200 million in profits. Coal experts said the settlement will accelerate the trend toward fewer but larger companies and give the companies whose labor force is not dominated by the United Mine Workers an advantage over U.M.W. companies, and they predicted that the industry-wide contract bargaining with the U.M.W. will probably crumble. [New York Times]
- The Supreme Court agreed to answer the question of whether strikers are entitled to unemployment insurance benefits -- one of the most controversial issues in labor-management relations. The case accepted by the Court stems from a 1971 telephone strike by the Communications Workers of America, which was settled in other states in four days but which went on in New York for more than 30 weeks, involving $49 million in unemployment contributions from the employers under New York state law. The constitutional question was tried separately, and the case to be heard by the High Court does not involve any financial recovery. [New York Times]
- Many miners went to work in the major coal producing states, but others would not cross the picket lines of the United Mine Workers' construction division at other mines. The construction division reached a settlement with the Association of Bituminous Contractors, and its members were urged by their leaders not to interfere with the miners' return. Before the second pact, similar pleas were frequently ignored by the rank and file, and there were fears that some mines opened today would be closed tomorrow. [New York Times]
- Stock prices declined because of fears on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve might have to tighten credit because of inflationary pressures. The Dow Jones industrial average was weak throughout the session and closed at 753.21 with a loss of 3.29 points. Losing stocks outnumbered rising ones by a ratio of about 7 to 5. [New York Times]
- Mayor Koch of New York City said that President Carter's urban policy was "encouraging" but that its housing program was "very inadequate." There's only $150 million for the whole country," Mr. Koch said of the housing plans after hearing the President describe his urban policy at the White House. "It's not enough for the state." One element of the full urban program -- making the fiscal relief portions of the welfare reform program effective immediately -- would mean an additional $100 million for New York, some city officials said. But they were not optimistic that the welfare package would get through Congress. [New York Times]
- Research into hepatitis infection that often follows blood transfusions has produced evidence that there is probably at least one human hepatitis virus in addition to the two already known. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health hope that their new evidence will lead to a screening test to help eliminate this virus from blood used for transfusions. [New York Times]
- Japanese riot policemen in asbestos coats and armed with tear gas guns seized a concrete fortress that had been built by radicals near Tokyo's new international airport. The radicals rioted at the airport on Sunday and some of their members seized the control tower and destroyed its equipment. The police arrested 51 persons in the raid on the fortress, which had a secret escape tunnel in which 41 of those arrested were hiding. Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda told his cabinet that the attack on the airport was "a challenge to social order and democracy," and was "something we must respond to." The airport had been scheduled to open formally this week. [New York Times]
- Gunmen killed Chief Clemens Kapuuo, one of the principal black leaders of the disputed territory of South-West Africa, also known as Namibia. The police said that the tribal leader, who was 55 years old, was ambushed by two men as he approached a grocery store he owned in Katutura, a black township. They said the shots were fired from one and possibly two Soviet-made pistols, but their statement avoided calling the killing a political assassination. The territory is the scene of a bitter rivalry between the two nationalist groups: the Soviet-backed South-West African People's Organization and the tribally based Democratic Turnhalle Alliance. Chief Kapuuo was the Alliance's president. [New York Times]
- Israel's Defense Minister, Ezer Weizman, toured northern Israel near the Lebanese border and urged community leaders to be patient with Palestinian shelling for another 48 hours. "I do hope it will stop," Mr. Weizman said. "I do not want the resumption of fire by both sides. I think we'll be able to absorb it for a little while." His remarks contained the hint that Israel would break its self-imposed cease-fire and retaliate unless the assaults stopped. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 753.21 (-3.29, -0.43%)
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 23, 1978 | 756.50 | 89.36 | 21.29 |
| March 22, 1978 | 757.54 | 89.47 | 21.95 |
| March 21, 1978 | 762.82 | 89.79 | 24.41 |
| March 20, 1978 | 773.82 | 90.82 | 28.36 |
| March 17, 1978 | 768.71 | 90.20 | 28.47 |
| March 16, 1978 | 762.82 | 89.51 | 25.41 |
| March 15, 1978 | 758.58 | 89.12 | 23.33 |
| 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 |