News stories from Wednesday January 3, 1979

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

Gen. Alexander Haig is resigning as NATO's military commander and is retiring from the Army next June 30, he announced. The general was careful not to rule out the political career he is reported to be considering. [New York Times] National health programs won a reprieve. The White House has restored all or part of many of the deep cuts that had been planned for the programs in the new budget after appeals by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and public criticism by many leading figures, including Senator Edward Kennedy. [New York Times] Two major urban aid programs, worth $3.4 billion, have been dropped by President Carter under his commitment to an austere budget, White House officials disclosed. However, they said he plans to resubmit to Congress legislation to provide $11 billion in loan guarantees and $150 million in direct grants to businesses in "distressed" rural and urban areas, including New York City. [New York Times] Special interest contributions amounting to almost $1 million were received by eight Congressional leaders who won re-election last November. Although none of the re-elected leaders faced an opponent who posed serious competition, the special interest donations paid for nearly one-third of their campaign expenses. [New York Times] Tongsun Park suffered a setback as a federal judge in Washington rejected the Korean rice dealer's bid to block the Internal Revenue Service from seizing $4.5 million in assets from his company. Mr. Park has been doing business in London since the turmoil over the South Korean influence buying scandal in Congress. [New York Times] A new Iranian cabinet has been formed and will take office within three days, according to Shahpur Bakhtiar, who has been asked by the Shah to return the country to civilian rule. Mr. Bakhtiar indicated that his government would probably not sell oil to Israel and South Africa as Iran did before strikes shut off exports. He also said he would reduce Iran's role in protecting the Persian Gulf, through which more than half of the oil used by Europe and Japan passes.The Iranian situation was under intensive discussion by leaders of the Carter administration. They weighed how to deal with the new civilian government and whether to advise the Shah to leave the country temporarily to aid the new regime. Administration officials said that Ambassador William Sullivan had asked for instructions to allow him to respond favorably if the Shah suggested leaving Iran for a while. [New York Times] Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia is accelerating and direct pressure on the capital of Phnom Penh is mounting. Western analysts reported that the provincial capital of Takeo, less than 50 miles from Phnom Penh, had fallen and that a Vietnamese column was moving toward the capital. [New York Times] China upheld freedom of speech, giving strong official support to the right of the people to put up wall posters, even though some have become increasingly daring in demands for democracy and are showing signs of incipient underground organization. [New York Times] North Korean forces are far stronger than previously estimated, according to a new United States Army intelligence report. The finding has aroused a controversy about the adequacy of Washington's intelligence estimates and President Carter's decision to withdraw American ground combat forces from South Korea. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 817.39 (+5.97, +0.74%)
S&P Composite: 97.80 (+1.07, +1.11%)
Arms Index: 0.58

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,349	24.14
Declines	263	2.73
Unchanged	284	2.31
Total Volume		29.18

* 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*
January 2, 1979	811.42	96.73	18.35
December 29, 1978	805.01	96.11	30.03
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