News stories from Friday April 7, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Carter announced that he had decided to defer production of the controversial neutron warhead. He said in a statement released by the White House that the United States would not begin producing the weapon in the immediate future, but that this decision could be reversed if the Soviet Union failed to exercise restraint in future arms deployment. Mr. Carter also said he had ordered the Defense Department to continue modernizing artillery and short-range missiles deployed in Western Europe so that neutron warheads could be fitted to them if this is deemed necessary. [New York Times]
- Unemployment rose in March for the first time in seven months but moved up only one-tenth of a point, to 6.2 percent from 6.1 percent of the nation's total work force, the Labor Department said. Total employment rose by 263,000 during the month to 93.3 million. The labor force grew even more rapidly, by 321,000 workers. Thus, unemployment rose by 58,000, which is considered a statistically insignificant increase. [New York Times]
- Stock prices rose in active trading, and there were dramatic gains in certain takeover situations. All 15 of the most actively traded issues on the New York Stock Exchange rose in price, something that has not often occurred this year. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 5.62 points to 769.58. [New York Times]
- A buyer paid 25 cents for a seat on the Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco, while another paid 75 cents for a membership. The sale prices, while extreme, do reflect the generally depressed state of the stock market and widespread uncertainties over the basic reorganization of securities trading mandated by Congress. Within the last decade Pacific Exchange Seats sold for as much as $70,000. [New York Times]
- Marshall Field & Company may again be facing a takeover move. The new bid is expected to come from the retail chain of Gamble-Skogmo of Minneapolis, which is reported to have made a multimillion-dollar investment in Marshall Field's common stock. Field recently repulsed a takeover effort by the Carter Hawley Hale Stores of Los Angeles. [New York Times]
- A special state prosecutor had specifically recommended against pardoning Cleveland Davis, a former Attica prison inmate now accused of slaying two New York City policemen last weekend. Governor Carey had cited the prosecutor's recommendations as his reason for pardoning Mr. Davis and other Attica inmates. The pardon has become an election-year issue for the Governor and is especially touchy now because Mr. Carey has before him a death penalty bill approved by the legislature that he has vowed to veto. [New York Times]
- New Jersey will take steps to force local industries to limit air emissions of eight suspected cancer-causing chemicals and gases that cause smog. The state has one of the country's highest cancer mortality rates. The state's Department of Environmental Protection said "uncontrolled release of carcinogens into the atmosphere is an extremely serious problem which must be dealt with now." [New York Times]
- Leonid Brezhnev charged that the United States was indecisive and inconsistent in its negotiations on limiting strategic arms. He charged that for "political reasons" Washington was delaying the conclusion of a treaty and backing away from points of agreement reached earlier in the talks. The Soviet leader described his government's position as "patient and constructive." Mr. Brezhnev made his remarks in a speech to the crew of a Soviet Navy cruiser from which he was watching naval maneuvers in the Pacific Ocean. [New York Times]
- Israel apparently violated an unpublicized agreement with the United States when it used American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon last month, administration officials said in Washington. Cluster bombs scatter shrapnel grenades across wide areas with devastating effect. They were said to have been supplied to Israel with the understanding that they would be used only in a full-scale war and against well-entrenched emplacements such as anti-aircraft missile sites. [New York Times]
- A decisive victory appears to have been won by the government of President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines in an election for an interim National Assembly. Amid evidence of clearly fraudulent ballot counting and police harassment of the opposition in Manila, early unofficial returns gave the government's party, the New Society Movement, led by Imelda Marcos, the President's wife, an almost 2 to 1 majority. It was not certain whether the 21 candidates of the opposition People's Force Party had won any of the 200 assembly seats from Manila, the only area where the opposition contested the election. President Marcos was not a candidate since a seat in the assembly has been reserved for him. He remains President and Prime Minister regardless of the election results. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 769.58 (+5.63, +0.74%)
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* |
| April 6, 1978 | 763.95 | 89.79 | 27.36 |
| April 5, 1978 | 763.08 | 89.64 | 27.26 |
| April 4, 1978 | 755.37 | 88.86 | 20.13 |
| April 3, 1978 | 751.04 | 88.46 | 20.23 |
| 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 |