News stories from Friday June 8, 1979

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

Crude oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 30,000 to 45,000 barrels a day because an exploratory oil well blew out last Sunday. The blowout suggested that a big new oil field may have been discovered, but it also has created fears the accident might pose a serious environmental threat to coastal areas in both Mexico and Texas. [New York Times] Heating oil prices may jump by almost 60 percent a month for homeowners in the New York metropolitan area. Fuel company officials, uncertain just how high oil prices may go by the coming heating season, are using "guesstimates" in figuring out how much customers will have to pay on their monthly budget plans. [New York Times] A recall of drugs containing a cancer-causing antihistamine that for years has been the active ingredient in over-the-counter sleeping pills such as Sominex and Compoz has been announced by the government and industry. The voluntary recall involves drugs using methapyrilene. [New York Times] An Arab-Jewish confrontation may hit Idaho when next year's Senate race pits Frank Church, the pro-Israeli chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, against Representative Steven Symms, a conservative whose position is that the U.S. should take a more balanced position in the Middle East lest the Arabs cut off American oil supplies again. [New York Times] A reunion of Harvard's class of 1969 brought together men and women who were students in the radical 60's and the gathering showed that successful upper-middle-class adulthood appeared to have done little to dull the class' interest in personal, social and political change. [New York Times] Alarm over carbon dioxide, which is rapidly increasing in the earth's atmosphere, is growing among scientists and environmentalists. The gas is released by the burning of fossil fuels. Some scientists believe that carbon dioxide may eventually warm the air causing the melting of polar ice caps, raising the level of oceans and producing major changes in the climate that could result in famine. [New York Times] Another presidential candidate, Representative John Anderson of Illinois, has joined the national Republican competition for the right to run against President Carter, or some other Democrat, in the 1980 election. The 10-term Congressman is the closest thing to a liberal in a Republican field of seven candidates. [New York Times] A leopard mauled and killed a child at the Roberts Brothers Circus in Washington Township, N.J. The leopard, chained to a stake, lunged from a stool it was sitting on and grabbed the 5-year old boy when he walked within five feet of the leopard while a jaguar was performing inside a tent. No metal cage separated the animals from the crowds. [New York Times] Economic sanctions against Zimbabwe Rhodesia have been maintained because President Carter wants to appease militant African states and the black voters of the U.S., Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa charged in an interview.War in Rhodesia could be prolonged and Western standing with black Africans damaged if the U.S. and Britain lifted their economic sanctions against the Zimbabwe Rhodesian government, Robert Mugabe, the leader of guerrilla forces fighting the government, said in an interview. [New York Times] Menachem Begin is firmly in control of his political base, as was proved during convention of the Herut Party, one important part of the right-wing coalition governing Israel for the last two years. At the convention, there was no suggestion that Prime Minister Begin, the party leader who is 66 years old and has heart trouble, might step down in the near future or that it might be a good idea to groom a successor. [New York Times] A slowdown in the Vietnamese drive into Cambodia took place in the countryside amid heavy monsoon rains, and the drive is now being concentrated along main roads and in the principal towns, Western analysts reported. But the hold of the Vietnamese army and the Cambodian regime it installed is believed to be firmer and wider in the Phnom Penh region and in areas linking the capital to the Vietnamese border. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 835.15 (-1.82, -0.22%)
S&P Composite: 101.49 (-0.30, -0.29%)
Arms Index: 1.11

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	714	12.61
Declines	708	13.89
Unchanged	481	4.97
Total Volume		31.47

* 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*
June 7, 1979	836.97	101.79	43.38
June 6, 1979	835.50	101.30	39.83
June 5, 1979	831.34	100.62	35.05
June 4, 1979	821.90	99.32	24.04
June 1, 1979	821.21	99.17	24.57
May 31, 1979	822.33	99.08	30.31
May 30, 1979	822.16	99.11	29.25
May 29, 1979	832.55	100.05	27.04
May 25, 1979	836.28	100.22	27.77
May 24, 1979	837.66	99.93	25.70