News stories from Monday August 7, 1978

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

The papal interregnum began formally as Jean Cardinal Villot, the second-ranking prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, took possession of the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican and called a meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals to elect a new pope. The body of Pope Paul VI, who died Sunday, is to lie in state in St. Peter's Basilica Thursday and Friday and to be buried Saturday.Pilgrims and others filed past the body of Pope Paul VI at the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. The crowd of several thousand included nuns and priests, men in shirtsleeves, women in cool dresses and children in shorts. The body, in red pontifical vestments, lay on a gray dais in a vast second-floor room. A memorial mass for Pope Paul drew 3,500 New Yorkers to St. Patrick's Cathedral, and other services filled churches around the country. But even as prominent churchmen praised the Pontiff, some suggested that his successor might have to take stronger action than Pope Paul had been able to do, particularly against dissidents from the right and left. [New York Times] Appeasement of labor was sought by the White House. The Carter administration moved to curb criticism of high-cost labor contracts expressed by Barry Bosworth, head of the Council on Wage and Price Stability. The action was apparently aimed at blunting growing criticism of President Carter by union leaders. Some of them are talking openly of not supporting him in the 1980 election. [New York Times] Patricia Roberts Harris canceled an appearance before the House Banking Committee rather than soften her criticism of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy as she had been ordered by the White House, congressional sources said. The refusal by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to attend the hearing was criticized by panel members. [New York Times] To prevent a government recall of the controversial Firestone 500 radial tire, the maker reportedly will propose a compromise under which it would voluntarily recall the tires. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has made an "initial determination" that the 500-series tires, about 13 million of which have been sold, have a safety defect. [New York Times] The search for film thieves who stole 13 reels from the Boston office of the Brink's Productions Film Company on July 28 are being sought by F.B.I. agents as well as the Boston police. The F.B.I. joined the search for the three gunmen after a $600,000 extortion demand, which constitutes a federal crime, was received by the producer of the movie about the 1950 theft of $2.7 million from the Boston office of the Brink's Security Company. [New York Times] A Niagara Falls site was declared a national emergency area by President Carter because of chemical leakage from a dump endangering the health of residents whose yards abut the site. Federal funds will now be added to state and local efforts to "save lives" or "avert the threat of a disaster," the declaration said. [New York Times] A new nuclear carrier was approved by the House against the wishes of President Carter. Voting 218 to 156, the chamber rejected a provision to delete $2.1 billion in the construction funds from a $119.3 billion defense appropriations bill. [New York Times] A decisive round of Mideast talks with President Anwar Sadat was begun by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in an effort to persuade the Egyptian leader not to lose patience over negotiations with Israel. The first session ended with a spokesman telling reporters only that the whole situation, including Mr. Vance's talks in Israel, had been discussed and the meeting would be resumed tomorrow night. [New York Times] A new Lebanese civil war is feared by some political analysts in Beirut. Syria is increasingly concerned over what it views as moves by Lebanese Christians for partition of the country, with the open support of Israel. Lebanon's two major Christian parties are determined to resist by force what they view as a plan by Damascus to turn Lebanon into a colony of Syria. [New York Times] A former Nazi judge resigned as the state governor of Baden-Wurttemberg in a major West German scandal. Hans Filbinger stepped down under the prodding of his Christian Democratic Party, which feared that accusations about his past might damage its chances in state elections. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 885.05 (-3.38, -0.38%)
S&P Composite: 103.55 (-0.37, -0.36%)
Arms Index: 1.23

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	876	14.78
Declines	648	13.46
Unchanged	404	5.11
Total Volume		33.35

* 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*
August 4, 1978	888.43	103.92	37.92
August 3, 1978	886.87	103.51	66.37
August 2, 1978	883.49	102.92	47.50
August 1, 1978	860.71	100.66	34.81
July 31, 1978	862.27	100.68	33.99
July 28, 1978	856.29	100.00	33.31
July 27, 1978	850.57	99.54	33.97
July 26, 1978	847.19	99.08	36.82
July 25, 1978	839.57	98.44	25.40
July 24, 1978	831.60	97.72	23.27