News stories from Wednesday March 29, 1978

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

Farmers will be paid to let a small part of their corn and cotton land lie idle this spring and wheat farmers will be paid a higher subsidy if they do not harvest part of what they have already planted, under an offer by President Carter. He acted to head off growing congressional pressures. Only two weeks ago, the Carter administration was opposing any paid land diversion because of rising food costs. [New York Times] Federal contributions to schools would be raised to almost $7 billion under renewal legislation being considered by Congress to replace the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was adopted in 1965 and expires this year. The renewal would include $600 million in new Title I funds, which would strengthen and expand supplementary instructional support for six million disadvantaged pupils. [New York Times] The dollar plunged again to a new postwar low of 221.60 yen, a drop for the day of 4.42 points, on the Tokyo foreign exchange market. The Bank of Japan, in a policy change, did not try to stem the trend most of the day, according to banking sources. [New York Times] Former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, kidnapped two weeks ago, seemed to have made a veiled appeal to the Italian government to offer to negotiate for his release. Letters written by him were distributed urging the government not to make "the sacrifice of innocents in the name of an abstract principle of legality." [New York Times] The collapse of the coliseum roof at the Hartford Civic Center in January was attributed mainly to "a gross and obvious" design error resulting in insufficient internal support for the space-frame roof, the chief engineer investigating the incident said. He said that the way in which the steel beams in the roof were joined failed to provide adequate bracing and strength in the internal roof structure. [New York Times] Stock prices made modest gains in accelerated trading amid increased institutional buying. The Dow Jones industrial average, which showed small increases throughout the session, closed at 761.78 with a gain of 2.94 points. Advances outscored declines by about an 8 to 5 ratio. [New York Times] Steel price rises were announced by the United States Steel Corporation. The nation's biggest steel maker said that the price of all its basic steel products would be increased 2.2 percent, or $10.50 a ton, to cover the cost of the new coal industry contract. The Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation then announced similar increases. The move by U.S. Steel was criticized by the Carter administration, which said that the coal contract would increase the cost of producing steel by only $4 a ton. [New York Times] Converting solar energy to electricity is being pressed. Dr. Harold Hovel of the I.B.M. Watson Research Center reported that 40 to 50 percent of the energy in sunlight should create electricity, using a combination of solar cells sensitive to different parts of the solar spectrum. He said that several such efforts were under study. [New York Times] Gov. Meldrim Thomson is considered unbeatable for a fourth term in New Hampshire, where he has succeeded in touching a deep and responsive chord among voters of both major parties. His anti-government attitude and promise to veto any sales tax or income tax the legislature may pass has won him many followers, despite a long series of controversial incidents that strike political observers in and outside the state as increasingly bizarre. [New York Times] President Carter arrived in Brazil and immediately raised the two issues that have exacerbated relations between Washington and Brasilia. During a welcoming ceremony at the airport, Mr. Carter spoke of both human rights and nuclear non-proliferation. In reply, President Ernesto Geisel said coolly that he and his government would be satisfied if Mr. Carter's two-day visit provided him with a "fair opinion about the Brazilian reality." [New York Times] Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman will fly to Cairo tomorrow in an effort to get peace negotiations with Egypt resumed, official sources in Jerusalem said, The sources said he would meet with President Anwar Sadat and the War Minister, Gen. Mohammed Abdel Ghani el-Gamasy. The mission was reportedly approved by the Israeli cabinet Sunday and an invitation from General Gamasy was said to have arrived Tuesday. [New York Times] The Palestinians of the West Bank of the Jordan River have rarely felt less hopeful and more isolated than they do now. The reasons are the Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon and the unsuccessful talks last week between President Carter and Prime Minister Begin of Israel. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 761.78 (+2.94, +0.39%)
S&P Composite: 89.64 (+0.14, +0.16%)
Arms Index: 0.82

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	883	14.07
Declines	507	6.61
Unchanged	491	4.77
Total Volume		25.45

* 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 28, 1978	758.84	89.50	21.60
March 27, 1978	753.21	88.87	18.87
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