News stories from Wednesday April 12, 1978

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

The Panama Canal pacts made an apparent gain. Senator Dennis DeConcini said he could accept the language proposed by a top State Department official concerning the wording of a new reservation that the Senator intends to offer to the second canal treaty. However, it was not clear whether the Senator and the administration had fully resolved their differences over the second pact. [New York Times] The farm aid bill was defeated by the House, which relieved President Carter of having to veto the measure as he had promised. The unexpectedly wide 268 to 150 vote against the emergency aid bill cut across both party and regional lines. The Senate approved the bill Monday by a margin so narrow it seemed certain that a veto would be upheld in that chamber. [New York Times] Moves to trim medical costs were announced by Joseph Califano, the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Among the steps are rules to limit Medicare payments for laboratory tests to the lowest price locally available. Mr. Califano also urged congressional approval of President Carter's plan to put a 9 percent ceiling on annual rises in hospital operating revenues. The logjam that has stalled such legislation in Congress seems to be breaking up. [New York Times] A delay or trimming of tax cuts planned by the administration was urged by the Federal Reserve Board chairman. G. William Miller, as a way to prune what he considers an inflationary $60 billion budget deficit for next year. The suggestion was received coldly by Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal, who said that tampering with the $25 billion in tax cuts and associated changes would lead to a major reduction of economic activity and to increased unemployment. [New York Times] The impasse over natural gas pricing continued despite a White House meeting of House and Senate energy conferees with Secretary of Energy James Schlesinger and President Carter in a new effort to resolve their differences. The legislators said later that little progress had been made, but the group agreed to reconvene at the White House tomorrow. [New York Times] Charges of bank fund misappropriation and falsification of records to conceal illegal transactions involving millions of dollars were made against five officials of the defunct American Bank and Trust Company in an indictment by a Manhattan grand jury. One of those indicted, David Graiver, described as the mastermind of the alleged plot, was supposedly killed in a plane crash in Mexico shortly before the bank was closed in 1976. However, the authorities cited evidence suggesting that he might still be alive. [New York Times] Stock prices eased in fairly heavy trading, as the mounting flow of first quarter earnings reports showed lackluster performance by some major companies. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.89 points. to 766.29. I.B.M., a bellwether issue, reported a gain of only 2.7 percent in quarterly earnings. [New York Times] The South Bronx will get major federal aid. The Carter administration pledged to spend $55.6 million between now and Sept. 30 to help New York City rehabilitate the depressed area, signaling the start of a seven-year effort to reverse the deterioration and unemployment that has blighted a third of the borough. A presidential aide handed Mayor Koch a list of specific loans, grants and other payments he said Washington was ready to make after application by city officials. [New York Times] A United Nations official who is from the Soviet Union and refused to return to Moscow this week is expected to leave his post. Moscow is pressing for the ouster of Arkady Shevchenko, the Under Secretary General who refused the Soviet order, declaring he had political differences with his government. His position has always been filled by a Soviet citizen having Moscow's approval, and it is considered certain he could not remain if the Soviet Union objected. [New York Times] New efforts to deal with Rhodesia and an arms accord with the Russians will be made by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. He left Washington on a long mission to confer with African leaders on the Rhodesian dispute and to try to make progress in Moscow on a pact to limit strategic weapons. Both objectives face major obstacles, and administration officials expect the mission to produce modest results. [New York Times] Fighting between Lebanese right-wing Christians and leftists intensified in Beirut, and the Syrian-dominated Arab peacekeeping force there intervened with heavy weapons in an attempt to halt the exchanges of fire. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 766.29 (-3.89, -0.51%)
S&P Composite: 90.11 (-0.14, -0.16%)
Arms Index: 0.81

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	742	13.10
Declines	637	9.09
Unchanged	482	4.02
Total Volume		26.21

* 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*
April 11, 1978	770.18	90.25	24.30
April 10, 1978	773.65	90.49	25.74
April 7, 1978	769.58	90.17	25.17
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