News stories from Friday February 16, 1979

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

As many as 17 children placed in People's Temple foster care homes by the California authorities may have died in the mass suicides and murders at the sect's Jonestown settlement in Guyana, according to a report given to Senator Alan Cranston by the General Accounting Office. Mr. Cranston, chairman of the Senate Human Resources Committee, emphasized that the G.A.O. report was preliminary. He has said that perhaps 150 foster care children died at Jonestown. [New York Times] A runway accident in Chicago that badly damaged a cargo jumbo jet is being investigated by federal officials. The plane veered off the runway when its pilot tried to avoid another airliner taxiing across the strip. [New York Times] Mardi Gras parades were canceled for Saturday, Sunday and Monday by Mayor Ernest Morial of New Orleans in an appeal to the city to remain calm during the policemen's strike that resumed this evening. He assured residents that National Guardsmen and state policemen would assume police duties. Striking police officers appear to be ignoring a court order enjoining the strike. [New York Times] Florida may have been buying swamps and other wetlands in deals involving inflated prices, bribery and kickbacks -- all in the name of protecting its environment -- and an investigation by the Justice Department is underway. It has also been charged that some persons have profited from the sale to the state of ecologically important lands endangered by Florida's building boom. [New York Times] Four of Iran's high-ranking generals were reported to have been executed by a firing squad after an "extraordinary court of the Islamic revolution" had found them guilty of "betrayal of the people, torture and murder." The generals had been loyal to the Shah. Meanwhile, some shooting continued in Teheran and the United States and Britain prepared to evacuate their nationals.Normal diplomatic relations with Iran's new government will be maintained, the United States said, as it sought an early meeting between Ambassador William Sullivan and Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. The request for the meeting had the practical effect of establishing ties between Washington and Prime Minister Bazargan's government. [New York Times] Yemen feels that the upheaval in Iran will encourage Southern Yemen, from which Yemen broke away eight years ago in a civil war, to send more infiltrators and weapons to dissident tribesmen in the north sympathetic to the southern nation's Marxist government. Yemen's Islamic government is resisting any Marxist influence, despite urging from Iraq, Syria, Kuwait and the Palestine Liberation Organization that it make peace overtures to the Marxists. [New York Times] Governmental negotiations for the purchase by the U.S. of Mexican natural gas were agreed on by President Carter and President Jose Lopez Portillo as their meeting in Mexico City ended. They also agreed to meet in the United States this summer to discuss gas purchases and other issues. [New York Times] Scores of Americans will be evacuated from Chad, where an American has died in the political turmoil. An evacuation has been ordered by the State Department, and Thomas Smith, director of the department's Office of West African Affairs, has been put in charge. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 827.01 (-2.08, -0.25%)
S&P Composite: 98.67 (-0.06, -0.06%)
Arms Index: 0.88

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	725	9.59
Declines	654	7.60
Unchanged	466	3.92
Total Volume		21.11

* 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*
February 15, 1979	829.09	98.73	22.56
February 14, 1979	829.78	98.87	27.22
February 13, 1979	830.21	98.93	28.47
February 12, 1979	824.84	98.20	20.61
February 9, 1979	822.23	97.87	24.32
February 8, 1979	818.87	97.65	23.36
February 7, 1979	816.01	97.16	28.45
February 6, 1979	822.85	98.05	23.57
February 5, 1979	823.98	98.09	26.49
February 2, 1979	834.63	99.50	25.35