News stories from Friday December 29, 1978

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

Why a United Airlines DC-8 crashed in a residential area in East Portland, Ore., Thursday night is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. The plane, which left New York City and stopped over at Denver, carried 172 adult passengers, five infants and eight crew members. Ten persons were killed and 18 injured seriously. [New York Times] The umbrella agency that includes the Peace Corps, VISTA and several other volunteer organizations was charged with "widespread mismanagement and a blatant disregard for the agency's mission." The accusations were made in a draft report of an investigation of ACTION, the overall agency, by Representative Robert Michel, Illinois Republican. Action is headed by Samuel Brown, an activist in the 1960's, who said of the charges, "The political right is looking for a hit and I'm it." [New York Times] A shot probably was fired from a grassy knoll in Dallas when President Kennedy was assassinated, acoustics experts told the House Select Committee on Assassinations. They said tests showed "a probability of 95 percent or better" that a shot came from the knoll, indicating more than one gunman was involved. [New York Times] The Shah chose an opponent to form a civilian government, but his spokesman quickly denied a report that he had agreed to leave the country temporarily and turn power over to a regency council. Shahpur Bakhtiar, a respected longtime foe, said that he would quickly begin to try to form a civilian government. The United States ordered a Navy task force to leave the Philippines and be ready to move into position in the Persian Gulf area if the political crisis in Iran warranted it. [New York Times] Two days of talks between the Chinese Nationalist government in Taipei and Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher left the differences between the two countries unchanged. In a statement prepared for his departure, Mr. Christopher said the talks were "businesslike and courteous," diplomatic language to describe a failure to more toward agreement.Taiwan's envoy in Washington spoke with controlled bitterness as he prepared to go home. United States diplomatic ties with Taiwan will officially end on Monday. Ambassador James Shen told a reporter that President Carter's decision to break with Taiwan and establish formal relations with China was "unusual, unnecessary, and it may prove to be totally unwise for your government." [New York Times] Formal wedding clothes in Western style may now be rented in Shanghai, but only for a formal wedding portrait. Such clothes may not be worn by Chinese in a wedding ceremony. That would be "inconvenient," a guide from China Travel Service said. But even this slight concession to luxury is a marked change from China's puritanism in the last decade, and is an ingratiating move toward the Chinese people by their Communist leaders. A city of 10.8 million people, Shanghai is to China what New York City is to the United States. [New York Times] Egypt raised prices of cigarettes and gasoline, but promised to continue subsidies that keep food and other essentials within reach of poor Egyptians, more or less. [New York Times] Future uses of 62 million acres of wilderness in the country's national forests are to be recommended next week by Bob Bergland, the Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. Bergland's proposals are sure to prompt another battle between conservationists and the timber, oil, livestock and mining industries over the last big areas of unused federal land. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 805.01 (-0.95, -0.12%)
S&P Composite: 96.11 (-0.17, -0.18%)
Arms Index: 0.99

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	800	12.44
Declines	758	11.63
Unchanged	422	5.96
Total Volume		30.03

* 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*
December 28, 1978	805.96	96.28	25.44
December 27, 1978	808.56	96.66	23.58
December 26, 1978	816.01	97.52	21.47
December 22, 1978	808.47	96.31	23.79
December 21, 1978	794.79	94.71	28.68
December 20, 1978	793.66	94.68	26.52
December 19, 1978	789.85	94.24	25.96
December 18, 1978	787.51	93.44	32.90
December 15, 1978	805.35	95.33	23.64
December 14, 1978	812.54	96.04	20.85