News stories from Friday September 8, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The government reported the first genuinely good news on the inflation front this year. The Labor Department said that wholesale prices fell 0.1 percent in August, the first such decline in two years. The index fell mainly because of a 1.5 percent drop in food prices, the chief culprit in inflation this year. The announcement triggered a sharp rise in stock prices and buoyed the dollar against major European currencies. [Washington Post]
- The House Assassinations Committee disclosed that sophisticated new tests have matched fragments of metal from the wrist of former Texas Governor John Connally with the so-called "magic bullet" from Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher-Carano rifle. The linkup of bits of metal from Connally's right wristbone with the nearly intact bullet found on his stretcher at Parkand Hospital 15 years ago was made during neutron activation tests conducted last fall at the University of California at Irvine. [Washington Post]
- Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist declined to block school desegregation plans in Los Angeles and Wilmington, Del. Rehnquist refused a request by seven suburban Wilmington school districts to block an order by a lower court requiring busing about 21,500 students between city and suburban school to achieve racial balance. The Los Angeles desegregation plan, which would become effective at the start of the new school year on Tuesday, calls for busing 60,000 of the 570,000 students in the nation's second largest school district. [Washington Post]
- Students in Cleveland lolled outside vacant school buildings while their teachers walked picket lines for a second straight day. More than 35,000 teachers are now on strike in 13 states, with 625,000 students enjoying an extended summer vacation. The number of strikes so far this year is 75, nearly double the number through the comparable period last year. [Washington Post]
- A federal appeals court has been asked to shut down every nuclear power plant in the United States. Jeannine Honicker, 45, of Nashville, Tenn., asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati for a restraining order to prevent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from allowing the use of nuclear power to generate electricity. She charged that the commission underestimates the magnitude of health effects from nuclear plants. [Washington Post]
- Detroit policeman Cedric Ector, who committed suicide after allegedly trying to rape two women, was not the city's "weekend rapist" believed responsible for 13 rapes, police said. Ector's blood type did not match that of the rapist, who is still at large. [Washington Post]
- President Carter began a new round of separate talks with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minster Menachem Begin at the Camp David summit, in an evident effort to build on the joint conversations the three leaders have already had. Informed sources said the three leaders were in excellent spirits at the end of their talks yesterday. [Washington Post]
- The government proposed regulations to curb smoking in most commonly used sections of most federal buildings around the country. The regulation would add conference rooms to the list of no-smoking areas. Other places where smoking is prohibited are auditoriums, classrooms, elevators and shuttle vehicles traveling between federal agencies. [Washington Post]
- Iranian army troops fired submachine-gun bursts into a crowd of several thousand anti-government demonstrators, hours after the Shah imposed martial law in Teheran and 11 other cities to control growing civil disorders. Teheran's military governor said 58 persons were killed and 205 injured in the main clash near the Iranian parliament. The shooting marked the most violent episode in a nine-month campaign by conservative Moslem leaders to force the Shah to slow down his attempts to impose social reforms on this rich Middle Eastern nation anchored in traditional Islam. [Washington Post]
- Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda said that he believes Rhodesia is going to attack Zambia to get revenge for the downing of a Rhodesian civilian airliner by Rhodesian guerrillas based in Zambia. He warned that he does not rule out calling on forces from outside Africa to help Zambia. Rhodesian forces have made two known attacks in the past year on guerrilla sites in Zambia which often house civilian refugees as well. [Washington Post]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 907.74 (+14.03, +1.57%)
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* |
| September 7, 1978 | 893.71 | 105.42 | 40.30 |
| September 6, 1978 | 895.79 | 105.38 | 42.61 |
| September 5, 1978 | 886.61 | 104.49 | 32.18 |
| September 1, 1978 | 879.33 | 103.68 | 35.07 |
| August 31, 1978 | 876.82 | 103.29 | 33.85 |
| August 30, 1978 | 880.72 | 103.50 | 37.76 |
| August 29, 1978 | 880.20 | 103.39 | 33.78 |
| August 28, 1978 | 884.88 | 103.96 | 31.76 |
| August 25, 1978 | 895.53 | 104.90 | 36.19 |
| August 24, 1978 | 897.35 | 105.08 | 38.50 |