News stories from Tuesday May 9, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Aldo Moro has been slain. The bullet-riddled body of the former Italian Prime Minister was abandoned by his kidnappers in a parked car in the center of Rome. The police, responding to an anonymous telephone call, found the body 54 days after Mr. Moro was abducted in a hail of gunfire on a street near his suburban home by the Red Brigades terrorist organization. The terrorists had offered to spare his life if the government agreed to free 13 prisoners from Italian jails. The government refused.
The family of Aldo Moro told Italian political leaders and members of the slain leader's Christian Democratic Party that they would not be welcome at his funeral. A confidant of his said his family wanted to make the leaders feel their bitterness.
Homage to Aldo Moro was paid by West European leaders, who expressed horror at his slaying. Several top West European officials called the murder an attack on the institutions of democracy, and some called for a common front to combat terrorism and defend democratic institutions. President Carter deplored the murder as "a contemptible and cowardly act."
Mr. Moro had been regarded as the top candidate to become Italy's next President. The 61-year-old professor of criminal law and Christian Democratic Party leader had been in public life since the end of World War II, serving five times as Prime Minister.
[New York Times] - Four missions to Venus, two by the United States and two by the Soviet Union, are scheduled this year in the broadest scientific inquiry so far of the earth's nearest planet. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that the first of its two unmanned missions was designed to orbit Venus in December and spend at least eight months, the length of a Venusian day, studying the weather, gravity field and topography. [New York Times]
- An energy program sacrifice was indicated by the House leadership. Speaker Tip O'Neill signaled that he was ready to risk losing President Carter's proposals for energy taxes in a House-Senate conference to get other elements of the administration's energy program approved. [New York Times]
- Most stocks retreated modestly again, and the Dow Jones industrial average drifted down 2.51 points to 822.07, However, Boeing rose 2½ points to 49 on heavy volume, after Singapore Airlines said it had agreed to buy Boeing aircraft worth possibly close to $900 million in one of the largest commercial plane orders on record. [New York Times]
- Lettuce prices have soared, along with those for asparagus, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, artichokes, onions and other produce of California's 500-mile long "salad bowl," which supplies 40 percent of the nation's fresh produce. The reason? Torrential rains that washed away 40 percent of the spring crop, coupled with restricted planting by some farmers in response to a harvest glut that depressed prices last year. Some relief is in sight, according to experts, but high prices are expected for at least a few weeks. [New York Times]
- Ford is under investigation by a federal grand jury on whether the motor company paid a bribe to get a $30 million contract with an Indonesian government agency in 1975 to build ground stations for satellite communications systems, sources said. Last year, Ford told the Securities and Exchange Commission, the sources said, that there had been a plan for a Ford subsidiary to pay a bribe, but that top management had killed the plan before any bribe was paid. A Ford official denied today that any bribe had been paid. [New York Times]
- A compromise on arms sales to the Middle East was offered informally to Congress by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. He proposed to increase the number of advanced military jets to be sold to Israel and to gain assurances that Saudi Arabia would use the aircraft only for defense. [New York Times]
- South Africa is being shaken by a controversy over disclosures that senior officials circumvented Parliament to finance a secret influence-buying campaign overseas and by allegations that some of the funds were siphoned off by officials for personal use. The long-governing National Party is expected to survive the attacks, but it has dismissed two officials and appointed an investigator. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 822.07 (-2.51, -0.30%)
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* |
| May 8, 1978 | 824.58 | 96.19 | 34.68 |
| May 5, 1978 | 829.09 | 96.53 | 42.68 |
| May 4, 1978 | 824.41 | 95.93 | 37.52 |
| May 3, 1978 | 828.83 | 96.26 | 37.60 |
| May 2, 1978 | 840.18 | 97.25 | 41.40 |
| May 1, 1978 | 844.33 | 97.67 | 37.02 |
| April 28, 1978 | 837.32 | 96.83 | 32.85 |
| April 27, 1978 | 826.92 | 95.86 | 35.47 |
| April 26, 1978 | 836.97 | 96.82 | 44.45 |
| April 25, 1978 | 833.59 | 96.64 | 55.80 |