News stories from Friday August 17, 1979

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

President Carter decontrolled prices of heavy crude oil, making good on his pledge of last month. And, as previously promised, he also said he would ask Congress to exempt the special oil from the "windfall" profits tax, now under consideration on Capitol Hill. The moves are designed to increase production of the oil through the incentive of higher prices. [New York Times] A big missile project may be scuttled by a host of legal and environmental problems, Defense Department officials said. The new MX mobile intercontinental missile is described as the Pentagon's most important military program, and some Carter administration aides suggest it forms a crucial part of the President's strategy for gaining Senate approval of the arms limitation treaty with Moscow. But the project may involve exhaustive disputes. [New York Times] The largest manhunt in Ohio history ended with the surrender of a 20-year-old black accused of killing a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in Cleveland a week ago. The slaying and the manhunt served to heighten serious racial tensions in Cleveland, and many blacks and whites say they are bracing themselves for the federal court-ordered integration program of city schools that begins this fall. [New York Times] President Caner chose a new counsel, Lloyd Cutler, to replace Robert Lipshutz who left as part of the White House shakeup. Mr. Cutler, a well-known Washington lawyer, takes over what is considered a top presidential staff position. [New York Times] A "Draft Kennedy" group is coming to New York from Florida for a $250-a-ticket cocktail party Sept. 13. The committee backing a presidential draft of Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts comes armed with a federal ruling that lets it raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the state's psychologically important "straw vote." New York organizers hope to raise $20,000 for the Florida committee. [New York Times] Nuclear waste from Japan and other Asian countries may be stored on a small, uninhabited island in the South Pacific, government officials said. The 500-acre island, Palmyra, is in the Line Islands, 1,110 miles southwest of Hawaii. The government is studying whether to buy it. [New York Times] Israel rejected a U.S. proposal that it support a American-sponsored Security Council resolution on Palestinian rights that might be attractive to so-called moderate Arabs. Robert Strauss, President Carter's special envoy to the Mideast, outlined the plan during talks with Prime Minister Menachem Begin and other top Israeli officials. [New York Times] Talks with the P.L.O. will continue under controlled circumstances short of actual negotiations, top-ranking administration officials said. The officials said they regarded U.S. contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization as important to Middle East peace. They made the point to emphasize that it was not Andrew Young's meeting with the P.L.O. that brought about his dismissal as chief delegate to the United Nations, but the fact that he failed to report it and mislead the government.An American black leader will confer with the Israeli delegate to the United Nations and with the Palestine Liberation Organization's observer there in separate meetings next week, it was announced. Dr. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will meet with the Palestinian observer and with Yehuda Blum of Israel to discuss the relationship between the P.L.O. and Israel as well as the recent resignation of Andrew Young. [New York Times] Imprisonment without trial continues in Vietnam, as several thousand persons are held in "re-education" camps. The Vietnamese Minister of State said in an interview that more than 90 percent of the political prisoners arrested because of their military or civilian roles in the former Saigon government have been released, and those still imprisoned are detained for their own protection. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 883.36 (-0.68, -0.08%)
S&P Composite: 108.30 (+0.21, +0.19%)
Arms Index: 0.67

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	691	15.83
Declines	732	11.22
Unchanged	469	4.58
Total Volume		31.63

* 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*
August 16, 1979	884.04	108.09	47.01
August 15, 1979	885.84	108.25	46.14
August 14, 1979	876.71	107.52	40.91
August 13, 1979	875.26	107.42	41.98
August 10, 1979	867.06	106.40	36.74
August 9, 1979	858.28	105.49	34.63
August 8, 1979	863.14	105.98	44.97
August 7, 1979	859.81	105.65	45.41
August 6, 1979	848.55	104.30	27.19
August 3, 1979	846.16	104.04	28.16