News stories from Monday April 3, 1978

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

President Carter has decided that the United States will not produce the neutron bomb, administration officials said. The decision was reported to have been made against the advice of the President's principal foreign policy advisers. Mr. Carter, they said, concluded that the production of the weapon would be contrary to the stand he has taken on nuclear disarmament. The officials said that, in a formal announcement this week, Mr. Carter would likely say that he expected the Soviet Union to show similar restraint in the deployment of new nuclear weapons. [New York Times] The Supreme Court removed obstacles to the construction of two nuclear power plants in Vermont and Michigan. In a unanimous decision, the Court warned federal judges that they cannot attempt to revise major policy decisions by Congress by placing procedural requirements on government agencies that make those policies nearly unworkable. The future of the Vermont and Michigan plants is still in doubt, however, and will be settled in further proceedings in the lower courts. [New York Times] Tongsun Park said he gave a total of $850,000 in gifts and campaign contributions to President Nixon's re-election committee, 30 former and present members of Congress and several unsuccessful candidates for the House. In his long-awaited public testimony, Mr. Park, a Korean businessmen and alleged covert agent, told the House Ethics Committee that he contributed $20,000 to $25,000 to Mr. Nixon's election campaign in 1972. His testimony provided the most precise information available to date about the total amount of his political payments. [New York Times] A proposal in Congress that revenues from a new crude oil tax be used to pay for a cut in Social Security payroll taxes is said to have the support of the Carter administration. Sources in several government agencies said that such a tie-in might insure passage of the embattled crude oil tax, which is the centerpiece of the administration's stalled energy program. There were indications that Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal would give restrained endorsement to the proposal when he gives his views before the Senate Finance subcommittee on Social Security on Wednesday. [New York Times] A "tough" anti-inflation statement will probably be made by President Carter in about 10 days, White House sources said. Other officials indicated that economic growth had declined sharply in the first quarter, adding to the problems. They said the economy was flat or had possibly even declined. [New York Times] Stock prices declined and the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 6.32 points to 751.04. The decline reflected fears in Wall Street of increased inflation and higher interest rates. A further weakening of the dollar in foreign exchange trading also put a damper on the issues' performance. [New York Times] Los Angeles police released a man who was arrested as a suspect in the Hillside strangling cases. According to Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates, the release of Peter Jones was due to a lack of evidence, despite George Shamshak's claims regarding Jones' involvement in two of the deaths. Police requested that the district attorney consider murder charges against Shamshak in two of the strangling cases. [CBS] United States Steel said it would roll back the price increase of $10.50 a ton it had announced last week for most of its products. Wheeling-Pittsburgh, which announced a similar increase, said it would also modify the rise. The companies did not say exactly how much the increases would be reduced, but they were expected to roll them back to the $5.50 a ton increase announced last week by most of the major steel producers. The rollback was decided on under pressure from competitors and the administration. [New York Times] A Federal Election Commission report questioned some expenditures by Alabama Governor George Wallace in his 1976 president election campaign. [CBS] Canadians are buying Florida real estate as a hedge against an uncertain economic and political future at home. Across Florida and in other sections of the Sun Belt from Miami to Los Angeles, such income-producing properties as shopping centers, office buildings and hotels and motels are now Canadian-owned. "The pace is accelerating and I don't see the end of it," a Miami realty consultant said. [New York Times] Former president Richard Nixon and his wife flew to Miami and were met by family friend Bebe Rebozo. The occasion of the trip was the birthday of another friend, Robert Abplanalp, on whose private island of Walker's Cay in the Bahamas the Nixons will stay. [CBS] The alleged killers of two New York City police officers yesterday had each been charged with the slaying of fellow inmates during the 1971 Attica prison revolt. Cleveland McKinley Davis, who had been a leader of the uprising, was arraigned in a hospital prison ward on charges of murdering the two officers early Sunday in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section. His alleged accomplice, Maliano Gonzalez, was killed in the brief, fierce gunfight with the policemen.William Walker, a New York City police officer who was acquitted last year of the murder of a college student, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn on charges of violating the student's civil rights. Federal prosecutors said that the civil rights investigation had been undertaken at the request of Attorney General Griffin Bell. The policeman is white, and the student, 22-year-old John Brabham, was black. [New York Times] South Africa was warned by President Carter not to reject a Western-backed United Nations plan for bringing majority rule to South-West Africa. At a news conference aboard his plane on the way to Liberia from Nigeria, Mr. Carter said that a "serious difference" could come between Washington and South Africa if the plan should be turned down. The President received a rousing welcome in Liberia, where he was welcomed by President William Tolbert. His visit there ended his tour of four countries in South America and Africa. [New York Times] Actor John Wayne underwent open heart surgery at a Boston hospital. Wayne suffered from a bout with lung cancer 14 years ago. [CBS]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 751.04 (-6.32, -0.83%)
S&P Composite: 88.46 (-0.75, -0.84%)
Arms Index: 1.69

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	405	3.24
Declines	1,071	14.48
Unchanged	423	2.51
Total Volume		20.23

* 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 31, 1978	757.36	89.21	20.13
March 30, 1978	759.62	89.41	20.46
March 29, 1978	761.78	89.64	25.45
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