News stories from Friday April 28, 1978

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

An increase in the inflation rate to nearly 10 percent in March was reported by the Labor Department. It reflected a rise of eight-tenths of 1 percent in the Consumer Price Index brought about by higher costs of food, housing and clothing. The annual rate of inflation in the first quarter was 9.3 percent. The rising index will increase Social Security and welfare benefits for one in every six Americans beginning this summer, because the benefits are tied by law to the price index. [New York Times] Federal safety experts examined the wreckage of the scaffolding collapse in St. Mary's, W. Va., that killed 51 construction men to determine the cause. The scaffolding crashed through the interior of a 200-foot water cooling tower being built for a power plant. "It was all over in 20 or 30 seconds. It went so fast and none of those poor men could have suffered too much," said a woman resident of a trailer park who observed the accident only 100 yards away. [New York Times] Chase Manhattan raised its prime rate, the minimum interest rate on corporate loans, to 8¼ percent from 8 percent in response to the Federal Reserve Board's second rate increase for federal banking funds since April 19, both made as anti-inflationary measures. Chase was joined by the Marine Midland Banks, the Bank of New York, the European American Bank and Trust Company and First Pennsylvania Bank. The prime rate is now the highest since early 1975. It was the first increase since last January. [New York Times] General Motors raised prices of some of its 1978 models an average of $100 effective Monday. The increases average $50 at wholesale. Seven models were exempt from the price rise: three Chevrolet Chevette models; three Chevrolet Monza models, and one of the Pontiac Sunbird models. [New York Times] Stock prices rose briskly despite a rise in the prime rate of some banks, putting the Dow Jones industrial average at its highest level in five months. The Dow advanced 10.90 points to 837.32. It had lost 10.05 points Thursday in response to the Federal Reserve's announcement of another increase in interest rates. [New York Times] The administration will give elected regional officials more authority in deciding which dam projects would be built. This is a drastic change in Carter administration policy. The White House raised bitter opposition in the West a year ago with the announcement of the proposed elimination of locally favored water projects. [New York Times] The Carter administration prepared for a fight in Congress over its proposed sale of planes to three Middle East countries by softening its language about treating President Carter's arms plan as a "package." Secretary of State Cyrus Vance hinted in a letter to Senator Frank Church, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, that the administration no longer insisted that the proposed sale was to be handled as a single $4.8 billion combined sale to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. [New York Times] Rhodesia dismissed its new joint Justice Minister, a black London-trained lawyer, for refusing to retract statements critical of the white-dominated judiciary and police. Byron Hove's remarks were warmly received by the country's blacks, but they caused the first major controversy in the provisional government established with three black leaders six weeks ago. The dismissal was announced by the Executive Council, made up by Prime Minister Ian Smith and the three black leaders, including Mr. Hove's political sponsor, Bishop Abel Muzorewa. Several hours after the dismissal was announced, Bishop Muzorewa issued a statement implying that he knew nothing of the decision and describing it as sure to be "disastrous" to the majority-rule agreement unless revoked. "I do wish to categorically and unequivocally disassociate myself from it," he said. [New York Times] Fighting in Afghanistan went on sporadically between military units following the coup in which President Mohammad Daud was believed to have been killed. Reports reaching New Delhi from Kabul, the capital, indicated that the new military revolutionary council was fairly well in control. The official Afghan radio announced that "the Constitution is abolished" and warned against political demonstrations or any signs of resistance to the new regime. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 837.32 (+10.40, +1.26%)
S&P Composite: 96.83 (+0.97, +1.01%)
Arms Index: 0.46

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	940	22.73
Declines	532	5.94
Unchanged	451	4.18
Total Volume		32.85

* 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 27, 1978	826.92	95.86	35.47
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