News stories from Wednesday November 8, 1978

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

Republicans built for the future in Tuesday's elections by winning major governorships, electing about 300 new members of legislatures in key states and making small gains in Congress. However, no immediate challenge to the Democrats' firm national domination was raised despite Republican gains of 3 Senators, 12 Representatives, 6 Governors and enough new members to increase their control of state legislatures from 4 to 12.The new Congress seems likely to make it more difficult for President Carter to gain support for social reforms and an arms accord with the Russians. A poll of all members of the new House conducted by the New York Times and CBS News indicates it is slightly more conservative than the last House on 10 key issues, including mandating a balanced budget, starting a national health insurance program and public financing of congressional elections. Go slow on taxes, spending and innovations -- that was the message from voters as they took sides on a record number of ballot initiatives in Tuesday's elections. Tax cuts or spending limits, or both, were approved in 13 states. On other initiatives, voters rejected gambling, busing, environmental measures, abortions and equal rights for women. Election results show support for President Carter's inflation-fighting programs, according to a White House assessment of nationwide returns. The chairmen of the two parties agreed that Mr. Carter could expect more cooperation from the new Congress even though the election produced no major party shifts. [New York Times] Minority businessmen have bilked the Small Business Administration out of millions of dollars in loan funds, according to a secret investigation by the agency. Citing one man who used $200,000 of the agency's funds to buy a racehorse that later died, investigators say $50 million in such funds may have been squandered, stolen or lost through the agency's mismanagement in the last three years. [New York Times] Merit rather than politics would determine the nomination of federal district judges under guidelines for Senators issued by President Carter. Attorney General Bell announced that Vice President Mondale and high White House advisers had chosen the members of screening committees that nominate appellate judges. [New York Times] The Shah of Iran ordered the arrest of the man who has been his closest adviser for years and called for a top-level inquiry into all business dealings of the imperial family. [New York Times] An Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty is expected to face new delays. Israel's chief negotiators told Secretary of State Vance that their government still rejected any "linkage" between a treaty and future steps toward an overall Arab-Israeli peace settlement. Cairo insists that the inclusion of such linkage is crucial. [New York Times] Terrorism in Italy erupted again as a political prosecutor, his driver and his bodyguard were machine-gunned to death on a country road south of Rome by radicals who also wounded one of their accomplices and later killed him. Two groups linked to the Red Brigades took responsibility. [New York Times] Women's ordination was rebuffed by the Church of England, which decided not to uphold a position it accepted in principle three years ago to allow them to become priests and members of the church hierarchy. The consensus in the General Synod was that women would probably be excluded for at least 10 years. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 807.61 (+7.54, +0.94%)
S&P Composite: 94.45 (+0.60, +0.64%)
Arms Index: 0.51

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	688	12.78
Declines	768	7.32
Unchanged	399	3.46
Total Volume		23.56

* 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*
November 7, 1978	800.07	93.85	25.32
November 6, 1978	814.88	95.19	20.45
November 3, 1978	823.11	96.18	25.99
November 2, 1978	816.96	95.61	41.03
November 1, 1978	827.79	96.85	50.45
October 31, 1978	792.45	93.15	42.72
October 30, 1978	811.85	95.06	59.48
October 27, 1978	806.05	94.59	40.36
October 26, 1978	821.12	96.03	31.99
October 25, 1978	830.21	97.31	31.38