News stories from Thursday April 27, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Bert Lance's borrowings from a group of small northwest Georgia banks before he became Director of the Office of Management and Budget are reportedly being explored by the grand jury investigating him for possible criminal activities while he was a banker.
Meanwhile, a federal judge temporarily barred Mr. Lance and eight associates from gaining control of Financial General Bankshares, unless the group offers to sell back to the original sellers the stock it accumulated in apparent violation of federal securities laws.
[New York Times] - Lawyers accused the Attorney General, Griffin Bell, of having seriously "undercut" their investigation into a series of break-ins by F.B.I. agents in New York. The four lawyers, who originally headed the inquiry, said the Attorney General had "hamstrung" their efforts to pursue important leads. William Gardner, who led the team, said in a statement to a Senate subcommittee that Mr. Bell's actions "reflected adversely on the integrity of the Justice Department." [New York Times]
- Two key figures in an investigation by the Justice Department of corruption in the teamsters union are Frank Fitzsimmons, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Richard Kleindienst, an Attorney General in the Nixon Administration. Both had given testimony early this year to a federal grand jury in Los Angeles that sharply contradicted the other's when they responded to questions about the part they might have had in promoting an insurance contract in which the teamsters' Central States Health and Welfare Fund lost $6.6 million. [New York Times]
- There was no evidence that oil companies were withholding natural gas from offshore leases, Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus said in reporting on a series of studies by the National Research Council. The studies followed charges a year ago that oil companies had helped cause the gas shortage of early 1977 by withholding supplies. They found only one gas producing area, Mr. Andrus said, where production could be increased significantly. This was the Tiger Shoal in the Gulf of Mexico, leased to Texaco, which announced last December that production there would be increased by almost 5 percent. [New York Times]
- A collapsing scaffold killed 51 men working inside a power plant cooling tower they were building in St. Mary's, West Va. The men were working about 170 feet above the ground when the framework supporting them broke, bringing down a safety net and burying them under debris. The Monongahela Power Company owns the $660 million plant. [New York Times]
- Stock prices dropped sharply following the Federal Reserve's further tightening of short-term interest rates, the second since April 19. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 10.05 points and closed at 826.92. The declining dollar also helped to depress the market, discouraging foreign investors who contributed to its recent rallies. [New York Times]
- Ford Motor's earnings declined 3.4 percent in the first quarter. The loss came from Ford's North American operations. The report said that the company's shift from the more profitable standard-size cars to compacts combined with increased production costs was responsible. [New York Times]
- The United States will sell more than eight tons of enriched uranium to India. President Carter, overruling the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ordered the sale. In a message to Congress, Mr. Carter said that India had given its promise to use the uranium only at the Tarapur nuclear power plant outside Bombay and not for any military purpose. The United States, in a nuclear cooperation pact with India 15 years ago, agreed to supply all the fuel requirements for the Tarapur plant, and India agreed to operate it exclusively on fuel provided by this country. [New York Times]
- A military coup in Afghanistan reportedly overthrew the government of President Mohammad Daud, who led a coup in 1973 that deposed King Mohammad Zahir Shah. The Daud government went down in a fierce fight, according to reports from Kabul, the capital. The official radio said that the country was now in the hands of a military revolutionary council headed by Gen. Abdul Khadir, "Daud is gone forever," the radio said. The coup might have been provoked by a government crackdown on Afghan Communists, according to diplomatic circles. [New York Times]
- New ideas for breaking the impasse in Middle East negotiations have been discussed by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and the Israeli Foreign Minister, Moshe Dayan. Mr. Dayan said in an interview in Washington that the proposals now had to be studied by both governments. He said that substantive differences remain between Israel and the United States, but that on the whole, as the result of the discussions, "I think that the relations are not bad." [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 826.92 (-10.05, -1.20%)
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 26, 1978 | 836.97 | 96.82 | 44.45 |
| April 25, 1978 | 833.59 | 96.64 | 55.80 |
| April 24, 1978 | 826.06 | 95.77 | 34.52 |
| April 21, 1978 | 812.80 | 94.34 | 31.54 |
| April 20, 1978 | 814.54 | 94.54 | 43.23 |
| April 19, 1978 | 808.04 | 93.86 | 35.06 |
| April 18, 1978 | 803.27 | 93.43 | 38.97 |
| April 17, 1978 | 810.12 | 94.45 | 63.49 |
| April 14, 1978 | 795.13 | 92.92 | 52.28 |
| April 13, 1978 | 775.21 | 90.98 | 31.58 |