News stories from Wednesday November 3, 1976

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

Jimmy Carter saw "a beautiful new spirit" in the country as he returned home to Plains, Ga., after winning the presidency -- the first son of the Deep South to do so since the Civil War. Although his mandate was limited by a narrow victory -- his electoral vote was no more than 303 and perhaps as little as 272 -- the Georgia Democrat was only the eighth man in the nation's 200 years to defeat an incumbent president. [New York Times] When President Ford heard the result, on waking, he telephoned Mr. Carter with congratulations and a call to unite the country in the common pursuit of peace and prosperity. Because of his hoarse throat, an aide read the message for him. [New York Times] Planning has begun in Plains, Ga., for the transition from the Ford to the Carter administration. The successful candidate disclosed this as he told reporters of Mr. Ford's "gracious expression" of congratulation and cooperation in a personal telephone call before the White House announcement. Mr. Carter appeared refreshed although he had little sleep. [New York Times] Stock prices plunged sharply at opening, then recovered some ground for a net loss of 9.56 for the Dow industrials, which closed at 956.53. Bond prices generally dropped but New York City bonds climbed sharply and Municipal Assistance Corporation bonds sold more rapidly. [New York Times] Staff studies for Mr. Carter include ambitious preparations to take swift charge of the federal government and change the size and functioning of the White House staff, an approach to major cabinet appointments, and an analysis of where a Carter imprint could alter the 1977 and 1978 budgets. A reorganization of the government is promised. There are more than 50 option papers on major policy initiatives in many areas. [New York Times] The traditional Democratic coalition of union members, blacks, the poor, Roman Catholics, Jews and liberals rallied to Mr. Carter in the election even though he had won in the primaries as an attacker of the party's establishment. Interviews by CBS News after the voting showed the impact of organized labor's massive effort and found Mr. Carter had a 5-1 advantage among black voters. [New York Times] Both houses of Congress kept their strong Democratic majorities, giving Mr. Carter a partisan base for his legislative program. Democrats were particularly pleased that only 2 of their 79 freshmen representatives in the 1974 landslide were beaten, showing that the Republicans had failed to rebound from that defeat. [New York Times] President-elect Carter may bolster the American economy when he takes office if he follows the economic advice he has been getting from his own campaign adviser and several former economic advisers to past presidents. As evidence builds up of a slower worldwide recovery in 1977 than had been forecast, Prof. Lawrence Klein, his campaign adviser, has spoken for reducing taxes and increasing federal spending by $5 billion to $10 billion as a stimulus. [New York Times] General Motors reported good sales of its new line of scaled-down "big cars" at a rate 35 percent higher than their bulkier predecessors achieved on first appearance last year. [New York Times] The Carter and Moynihan victories have put the New York state Democratic Party in its strongest position since the New Deal after years of statewide losses and bitter feuding. Holding its recent gains in Congress and the state Assembly magnified the effect and contrasted with Democratic disappointments in the neighboring states of Connecticut and New Jersey. [New York Times] Negotiations on Rhodesia were set back when Prime Minister Ian Smith flew home after a two-hour meeting with four nationalist leaders and the British chairman of the Geneva conference produced no agreement on a date for black majority rule. Mr. Smith left his hard-line Foreign Minister, P K. van der Byl, to head the delegation. [New York Times] Prices shot up in Israel as the government added 20 percent on food and 11 percent on fuel, with 20 percent more for public transportation and 11 percent for electricity and water to start within two weeks. The action reflected the precarious state of the economy in a losing fight against inflation. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 956.53 (-9.56, -0.99%)
S&P Composite: 101.92 (-1.18, -1.14%)
Arms Index: 1.37

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	313	2.79
Declines	1,193	14.55
Unchanged	376	2.01
Total Volume		19.35

* 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*
November 1, 1976	966.09	103.10	18.39
October 29, 1976	964.93	102.90	17.03
October 28, 1976	952.63	101.61	16.92
October 27, 1976	956.12	101.76	15.79
October 26, 1976	948.14	101.06	15.49
October 25, 1976	938.00	100.07	13.31
October 22, 1976	938.75	99.96	17.87
October 21, 1976	944.90	100.77	17.98
October 20, 1976	954.87	101.74	15.86
October 19, 1976	949.97	101.45	16.20