News stories from Friday February 2, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The jobless rate declined to 5.8 percent of the nation's work force in January, slightly below the December rate, but without significant change over the last six months. The number of employed people rose to 96.3 million, reflecting in part increased employment of women, blacks and teenagers. Most of the unemployed were blacks: 7.8 percent of black men were without jobs, as were 10.6 percent of black women and 32.7 percent of black teenagers.
There are "glaring weaknesses" in the way unemployment statistics are calculated in state and municipal reports, a national commission said. One of the remedies it proposed would be an appropriation of funds that would be used to train state and municipal officials in statistical reporting.
[New York Times] - Americans are buying anything that might gain in value while the dollar shrinks. They are hedging against inflation, with investments in gold, silver, land, houses, violins, old tools, artworks and antiques. Hedging might be one reason land and home prices continue climbing, while interest rates, which in theory are supposed to put a damper on those prices, soar. [New York Times]
- Attorney General Griffin Bell decided that "no further investigation or prosecution is warranted" into charges that President Carter or a White House aide illegally solicited contributions to the Democratic Party at a White House luncheon last August, the Justice Department said. The department's investigation followed a magazine report that two businessmen had given a total of $125,000. [New York Times]
- Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard has been purchased by a consortium of international developers who plan to convert the 57-acre naval center, decommissioned in 1974, into a residential complex, with a hotel, marina and commercial area. [New York Times]
- Finding potentially favorable voters has been made possible and tested positively with sophisticated accuracy by a group made up of two political consultants and a demographic research expert. The system combines attitudinal polling, computer technology and the use of census data. [New York Times]
- Nelson Rockefeller's memorial service at Riverside Church in Manhattan was attended by 2,200 people, the famous, the powerful and those who were just friends. Jazz and brass music accompanied Mr. Rockefeller's memorial service. A brass prelude was played because "I saw Nelson Rockefeller as a trumpet, his nephew, David Rockefeller Jr., said. [New York Times]
- Sid Vicious died, apparently of a heroin overdose, about 13 hours after he was freed on bail in a murder charge. He was arrested last October and charged with stabbing 20-year-old Nancy Spungeon to death. The 21-year-old punk-rock musician died at a party celebrating his release, the police said. [New York Times]
- Shahpur Bakhtiar made new overtures to Ayatollah Khomeini, but was rebuffed by the Ayatollah who, in a statement for mullahs to read to their followers throughout Iran, called on Iranians to "destroy the terrible monarchy and its illegal government." [New York Times]
- On his quest for American technology, Teng Hsiao-ping climbed into the cockpit of a space shuttle flight simulator at the Johnson Space Center in Houston to see what it would be like to land the newest American spacecraft from an altitude of 100,000 feet. China's senior Deputy Prime Minister was so fascinated he seemed reluctant to leave the simulator. [New York Times]
- Alternatives to the Communist Party's hand-picked nominees in the March 4 election to the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Union's rubber-stamp parliament, have been proposed by a small group of workers, Russian nationalists and religious activists. [New York Times]
- Rhodesia officially became a non-racial society as eight statutes barring racial discrimination went into effect. The statutes contain safeguards introduced at the insistence of the 250,000 whites, thus there was little prospect for immediate improvement in the way of life of most of the country's blacks. [New York Times]
- The restrictions on trade with the Soviet Union, which were written into United States law in recent years to spur Moscow to allow the emigration of more Soviet Jews, would be removed by Senator Adlai Stevenson, chairman of the Banking subcommittee on International Finance. He would also seek to ease terms for granting trade concessions to both the Soviet Union and China. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 834.63 (-6.24, -0.74%)
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* |
| February 1, 1979 | 840.87 | 99.96 | 27.92 |
| January 31, 1979 | 839.22 | 99.93 | 30.33 |
| January 30, 1979 | 851.78 | 101.05 | 26.91 |
| January 29, 1979 | 855.77 | 101.55 | 24.18 |
| January 26, 1979 | 859.75 | 101.86 | 34.24 |
| January 25, 1979 | 854.64 | 101.19 | 31.45 |
| January 24, 1979 | 846.41 | 100.16 | 31.71 |
| January 23, 1979 | 846.85 | 100.60 | 30.18 |
| January 22, 1979 | 838.53 | 99.90 | 24.39 |
| January 19, 1979 | 837.49 | 99.75 | 26.80 |