News stories from Monday September 17, 1979

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

Cuba freed the last four Americans held on political charges in apparent response to President Carter's pardon 11 days ago of four Puerto Rican nationalists imprisoned for political terrorism. The State Department sent a plane to Cuba and brought the four to Miami. [New York Times] A DC-9 had to turn back after its rear door and tail cone were ripped away high over the Atlantic and parcels and a food cart were swept out of the gaping hole. The Air Canada twin jet, which was flying to Nova Scotia, returned to Boston and made a safe emergency landing. A stewardess was slightly injured and three of the 38 passengers had minor injuries. [New York Times] President Carter could suffer a setback next month when Florida holds the Democratic Party's first political test of strength between him and Senator Edward Kennedy. On Oct. 13, 877 delegates will be elected to a state party convention. On Nov. 18, the group, together with 838 leadership-chosen delegates likely to be heavily pro-Carter, will conduct a Carter-Kennedy straw poll. [New York Times] The annual budget battle began in Congress amid heated debates over which groups should bear the burden of fighting inflation. In the process, the legislators demonstrated how difficult it is to impose fiscal restraint when every special interest in Washington is fighting for itself against the others. [New York Times] The new Secretary of Transportation, Neil Goldschmidt, said in an interview that he would abandon a plan by his predecessor to combine road and public-transit agencies, which would stir animosity in both areas, because it would consume energy and time that would be better spent pursuing "substantive issues." [New York Times] Storm losses of more than $1 billion were estimated by officials as coastal residents in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida continued to dig out from the debris left by Hurricane Frederic. The police in Mobile, Ala., broke up a crowd of 5,000 that had overwhelmed a food stamp distribution center. [New York Times] The closing of two reactors at Indian Point, N.Y., was urged by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which asserted that the plants overlooking the Hudson had major safety faults. [New York Times] Atom bomb articles won't be barred by the government. The Justice Department decided to drop its efforts to stop publication of articles on the hydrogen bomb by the Progressive magazine and a newspaper in California. One day after a Wisconsin paper published a letter that the government says contains secret data about the bomb, the department determined that further action on the issue was pointless, according to officials. But the government warned that it might act against future disclosure of security secrets. [New York Times] A Bolshoi Ballet couple has defected to the United States, a State Department official announced. He said that the couple, Leonid and Valentina Koslov, had notified the American authorities of their intention to defect shortly before their troupe left Los Angeles for the Soviet Union and that the husband and wife were in the protective custody of the F.B.I. [New York Times] A poor nations' revolt on oil prices has emerged. They have persuaded the major oil-exporting nations to take part in major conferences with them and at the United Nations to deal with pricing and supply. [New York Times] The power shift in Afghanistan prompted some reports that a coup had taken place. The new leader of the pro-Soviet government said his takeover of the presidency marked the start of "a better socialist order" and he announced that some persons had been "eliminated." [New York Times] The U.S. nuclear pledge to Europe remains steadfast and the deterrent to Soviet attack unimpaired, according to McGeorge Bundy, the national security adviser in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 881.31 (+2.21, +0.25%)
S&P Composite: 108.84 (+0.08, +0.07%)
Arms Index: 1.01

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	666	15.04
Declines	781	17.73
Unchanged	457	4.84
Total Volume		37.61

* 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*
September 14, 1979	879.10	108.76	42.01
September 13, 1979	870.73	107.85	35.24
September 12, 1979	870.90	107.82	39.35
September 11, 1979	869.71	107.51	42.54
September 10, 1979	876.88	108.17	33.00
September 7, 1979	874.15	107.66	34.37
September 6, 1979	867.32	106.85	30.36
September 5, 1979	866.13	106.40	41.65
September 4, 1979	872.61	107.44	33.35
August 31, 1979	887.63	109.32	26.37