News stories from Monday November 28, 1977

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

Senator John McClellan died of a heart condition at his home in Little Rock, Ark. The 81-year-old Democrat was the second most senior Senator and chairman of the Appropriations Committee. In 35 years in the Senate, the Arkansan gained national prominence as a vigorous investigator, an advocate of military spending and an opponent of civil rights bills. [New York Times] Congress faces a full agenda when it reconvenes tomorrow after a three-week recess. Members hope to complete action before the year ends on an energy package, Medicaid-financed abortions for low-income women and Social Security legislation. [New York Times] The nation's trade deficit in October exceeded $3 billion for the first time. The Commerce Department reported a $3.1 billion deficit for the month and said that the main factor was the East and Gulf coast dock strike, which began Oct. 1. The department said that exports of $9.2 billion fell 16 percent from September to the lowest level since March 1976, while imports of $12.3 billion were 3 percent below the September level. [New York Times] Japan's mounting trade surplus and the steady rise in the value of the yen caused Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda to carry out a sweeping reorganization of his cabinet. Mr. Fukuda, concerned about Japan's relations with the West, created a cabinet post of Minister for External Economic Affairs and named Nobuhiko Ushiba, former ambassador to Washington, to the position. [New York Times] Stock prices turned lower. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 4.85 points to 839.57, following last week's gain of 8½ points. [New York Times] Plans to merge two of the most widely known and oldest investment banking firms on Wall Street were announced. The two are Lehman Brothers Inc. and Kuhn Loeb & Company. The plan would unite two firms with great world prestige and diversified financial capability and create one of the largest concerns in the securities industry, with total capital of more than $78 million and 1,800 employees, [New York Times] Extension of New Jersey's income tax was backed by Democratic and Republican legislative leaders. In a meeting with Governor Byrne, they agreed to press in the present lame-duck legislature for repeal of the June 30 expiration date on the levy. They also agreed to seek raises for state judges and endorsed salary increases for legislators and cabinet members. [New York Times] Heart attacks occur less often among those who engage regularly in strenuous activities such as jogging, swimming, tennis and mountain climbing, according to a study of 17,000 Harvard alumni aged 35 to 75, The study suggested that vigorous exercise has a definite protective effect, even if an individual has characteristics such as high blood pressure or overweight that raise his risk of heart disease. The study also found that lesser amounts of physical activity had no measurable benefit against the risk of heart attacks. [New York Times] The rate at which American women have taken jobs outside the home in recent years has surpassed all Labor Department projections. And the revolution in women's roles that this change in the labor force represents will have an even greater impact, according to Eli Ginzburg, the Columbia University authority on manpower, than the rise of Communism and the development of nuclear energy. [New York Times] Washington is accepting Egypt's bid to attend informal talks in Cairo to pave the way for a Middle East peace conference in Geneva, administration officials said. They said that a decision on who will represent the United States would be announced. The administration's acceptance was conveyed to the Soviet Ambassador, Anatoly Dobrynin, by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Most State Department officials expect Moscow to side with Syria and other Arabs and stay away from the Cairo meeting. [New York Times] Israel will send two officials to Cairo soon to take part in informal talks called by President Anwar Sadat to prepare for a Geneva peace conference, Prime Minister Menachem Begin announced to the Israeli Parliament. The two aides are Eliahu Ben-Elissar, director general of the Prime Minister's office, and Meir Rosenne, a longtime legal adviser. The invitation was extended in a highly unusual meeting between tile delegates of the two countries at the United Nations.The Egyptian and Israeli delegates at the United Nations kept silent about their meeting until Prime Minister Begin announced it, saying they had met and said "shalom," meaning peace. [New York Times] Rhodesia announced attacks that were made last week against black nationalist guerrillas deep inside Mozambique. The government of Prime Minister Ian Smith said that the raids, supported by planes, had killed at least 1,200 persons and destroyed two guerrilla bases and many war supplies. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 839.57 (-4.85, -0.57%)
S&P Composite: 96.04 (-0.65, -0.67%)
Arms Index: 1.46

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	604	5.71
Declines	862	11.91
Unchanged	437	3.95
Total Volume		21.57

* 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 25, 1977	844.42	96.69	17.91
November 23, 1977	843.30	96.49	29.15
November 22, 1977	842.52	96.09	28.30
November 21, 1977	836.11	95.25	20.11
November 18, 1977	835.76	95.33	23.93
November 17, 1977	831.86	95.16	25.11
November 16, 1977	837.06	95.45	24.95
November 15, 1977	842.78	95.93	27.47
November 14, 1977	838.36	95.32	23.22
November 11, 1977	845.89	95.98	35.26