News stories from Thursday July 12, 1979

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

No new gasoline stations could open, experts say, under the new gasoline allocation regulations the Carter administration is planning to impose. The new plan, which would severely limit the amount of gasoline a station could receive in times of shortage, is part of the Energy Department's overall review of the maze of federal gasoline regulations. [New York Times] Americans are trying to save energy. Interviews with citizens in a dozen cities and towns disclosed that Americans everywhere have become more conscious of their energy consumption, and that many are making new efforts to conserve. [New York Times] James Schlesinger wants to quit his job as Secretary of Energy, according to friends who say he has informed President Carter he would like to leave in the fall, or by year's end. But others close to Mr. Schlesinger said his departure could come "very, very soon." One administration official said the question was not whether he would leave, but whether his departure would be part of Mr. Carter's new energy package. [New York Times] President Carter's standing declined in the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. The poll showed that spreading gasoline shortages, persistent unhappiness with the economy and doubts about his judgment under pressure have continued to erode Mr. Carter's public support. In one month's time, his approval rating dropped from 30 to 26 percent. [New York Times] The White House was sent a report from a presidential commission assigned to draft plans for greater use of coal. The report urges an immediate start on a $159 billion investment in coal power, a move the panel said could halve oil imports by 1990. [New York Times] President Carter will deliver a speech on national television at 10 P.M. Sunday setting forth administration goals and policies, the White House announced. The speech is expected to go beyond the energy crisis and the economy to include the President's views on some of the broad moral and philosophical issues affecting the nation. [New York Times] Some citizens hauled hunks of Skylab junk as souvenirs, collecting the pieces from roofs and outback scrubland, while dozens of other angry Australians began to give the United States a piece of their mind about the space station scare.Space engineers will go to Australia in a day or two to identify debris from the Skylab space station and attempt to reconstruct the enormous path of its fall to earth. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is sending the team. [New York Times] Carmine Galante was killed in a hail of bullets and shotgun blasts in an apparent underworld execution this afternoon as he dined on the patio of a small restaurant in Brooklyn. The reputed organized crime leader was shot at point-blank range, and two other men, a Galante bodyguard and the owner of the restaurant, were also slain. The killers speed away in several cars. [New York Times] A hotel fire killed at least 71 people and injured 70 others in the worst hotel incident in recent Spanish history. The fire, which began when a pastry machine exploded, roared through a luxury hotel in Saragossa, Spain. About 200 people, among them the 79-year old widow of Francisco Franco, the former dictator, managed to escape from the Hotel Corona de Aragon. [New York Times] A challenge to the Janata Party's unity is provided by a Hindu group in India that critics compare to the Hitler Youth. They charge that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh inflames religious hatred and violence. But leaders of the group assert that it is merely a cultural organization. Many members of the Janata Party come from the its ranks, but the party also includes factions opposed to the group. [New York Times] Afghanistan's army is crumbling under pressure from anti-Communist rebels, according to United States officials. Carter administration experts said that rebels, organized along tribal lines, are slowly gaining the upper hand in their uprising against the proclaimed Marxist rule of President Noor Mohammad Taraki, who seized power in a bloody coup last year. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 836.86 (-7.00, -0.83%)
S&P Composite: 102.69 (-0.95, -0.92%)
Arms Index: 1.41

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	481	7.07
Declines	967	20.08
Unchanged	420	4.63
Total Volume		31.78

* 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*
July 11, 1979	843.86	103.64	36.64
July 10, 1979	850.34	104.20	39.73
July 9, 1979	852.99	104.47	42.46
July 6, 1979	846.16	103.62	38.57
July 5, 1979	835.75	102.43	30.29
July 3, 1979	835.58	102.09	31.67
July 2, 1979	834.04	101.99	32.06
June 29, 1979	841.98	102.91	34.68
June 28, 1979	843.04	102.80	38.47
June 27, 1979	840.52	102.27	36.72