News stories from Thursday October 18, 1979

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

Inflation is the overriding problem to be dealt with by 1980 presidential candidates in the view of 40 percent of Americans, the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll found. Inflation was cited as the key issue twice as often as was energy and 10 times as often as unemployment as the nation's most serious problem. [New York Times] Home heating oil subsidies for the poor and elderly should be provided with a speedy congressional appropriation of $1.35 billion, House Speaker Tip O'Neill said. [New York Times] Aid to Carter political allies is being boldly pushed in a new policy by the administration, which is also timing aid announcements for maximum political impact on states involved in the early stages of the 1980 presidential campaign. White House officials acknowledge plans for major new programs for Iowa, New Hampshire, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Minnesota. [New York Times] Senator Edward Kennedy speeded up the timetable for setting up his national campaign committee. It is now set to be announced late next week, in part because of organizational problems of the Draft Kennedy for President movement in Florida. [New York Times] A school racial dispute rocked Boston. Protests and scattered fighting between black and white students embroiled several high schools for the third day as school administrators met with white students to try to resolve the dispute over allegations of favoritism toward blacks. About 150 white students rampaged through East Boston, overturning two cars and injuring two policemen, the police said. [New York Times] A bitter battle over school busing could result from a notice served by the federal government on Chicago that it would sue to force an end to alleged widespread segregation. Patricia Roberts Harris, the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, said she had notified Chicago school officials that unless an acceptable desegregation plan was submitted by Oct. 27, the issue would be referred to the Justice Department for legal action. [New York Times] Bombs attributed to Puerto Ricans exploded in a government office building in Chicago and at the suburban Great Lakes Naval Training Center, but no injuries were reported. A third bomb was found and dismantled in another Chicago building. Four other bombs exploded in Puerto Rico. [New York Times] A county cannot meet its payroll. Wayne County, which embraces Detroit, has been operating illegal deficits for three years, has a debt of $18 million and has no cash. Michigan is withholding aid to try to force the county to reorganize under a single, politically accountable executive. [New York Times] Secretary of Defense Harold Brown made clear that the Carter administration would not use American security commitments here to force the South Korean government to ease its political repression. [New York Times] President Carter was conciliatory toward the major oil exporting nations, saying he believed they were producing at maximum levels and that it was in the self-interest of some of them not to overproduce. He renewed pleas for national energy conservation to avoid what he termed "political harassment, perhaps even blackmail" by Libya and other nations he did not name. [New York Times] Skepticism involving Michele Sindona was indicated by the authorities. After a second round of questioning the Italian financier, who had been missing for two and a half months, law enforcement officers reflected doubt that he had been kidnapped and had not vanished intentionally to avoid trial on bank fraud charges. [New York Times] A deadlock over Rhodesia was broken at the London conference by a general accord between Britain and the Patriotic Front guerrilla alliance. It affirms that any new Zimbabwe Rhodesian government will not be responsible for compensating white farmers whose lands are certain to be expropriated. [New York Times] The 1979 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Odysseus Elytis, a 68-year-old Greek poet noted for lyric and often mythical evocations of his country. His poetry, the Swedish Academy said, "depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man's struggle for freedom and creativeness." [New York Times] Bonn's deployment of U.S. missiles is not contingent on their deployment in the Netherlands, according to Washington officials, who said that such assurances had been received from West Germany. But West German diplomats said that Bonn does not intend to be the only NATO country to accept the new medium-range arms. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 830.12 (-0.60, -0.07%)
S&P Composite: 103.61 (+0.22, +0.21%)
Arms Index: 0.87

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	731	13.73
Declines	695	11.32
Unchanged	432	4.54
Total Volume		29.59

* 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*
October 17, 1979	830.72	103.39	29.66
October 16, 1979	829.52	103.19	33.76
October 15, 1979	831.06	103.36	34.85
October 12, 1979	838.99	104.49	36.39
October 11, 1979	844.62	105.05	47.55
October 10, 1979	849.32	105.30	81.62
October 9, 1979	857.59	106.63	55.57
October 8, 1979	884.04	109.88	32.61
October 5, 1979	897.61	111.27	48.25
October 4, 1979	890.10	110.17	38.80