News stories from Friday January 25, 1980

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

A meeting of the Islamic Conference has been called to assess and possibily condemn the Soviet intervention in Afgfhanistan. Foreign ministers from three dozen Moslem nations are arriving in Islamabad, Pakistan, where the emergency meeting will take place. Delegations with close ties to Moscow were reportedly under Soviet pressure to attempt to divide the meeting or at least water down an expected condemnation resolution. [New York Times] An attempt to free the hostages in Teheran will be one of the first official acts of Iran's new President, Abolhassan Ban-Sadr, the Finance Minister, who apparently won a landslide victory in the country's first presidential election. He is a member of the Revolutionary Council. [New York Times] Soviet industrial growth has slowed down to the lowest rate since the 1940's, according to official economic figures released in Moscow. There were shortfalls in the production of oil, coal, steel and other key commodities. Industrial production in 1979 grew by only 3.4 percent. The planned growth rate was 5.7 percent. [New York Times] Exxon reported record profits of $4.3 billion in 1979, an increase of 55.8 percent, in a year when its customers coped with serious shortages and sharply higher prices. Exxon also reported an increase in gross revenues of 30 percent to a record $84.35 billion, much more than any business had ever reported for a single year. [New York Times] Consumer prices rose 13.3 percent in 1979, the largest annual increase in 33 years. The increase was given a big push in December, when an acceleration in food prices helped push the Con-sumer Price Index up 1.2 percent for the month. The December rise also reflected big increases in fuel and housing costs. [New York Times] A gunman hijacked a Delta plane bound for New York and forced it to Cuba, where he surrendered after all his hostages slipped off the plane while he negotiated for a flight to Iran. A flight returning the 53 passengers touched down at Kennedy International Airport last night.The hijacker was identified as Samuel Aldon Ingram, 28, who was accompanied by his wife and two daughters. [New York Times] The draft should include women as well as men, in Rosalynn Carter's view. Mrs. Carter's opinion might provide a possible clue to the President's position on the issue. Officially, the White House has said that President Carter will decide by Feb. 9 whether to recommend legislation calling for draft registration by women as well as men. [New York Times] A shutdown of Chicago's schools on Monday appeared likely as officials of the teachers' union advised its members not to report to work in protest over the school board's failure to meet deadline for a a payroll. [New York Times] Twenty-five hostages were taken at gunpoint by three black South African nationalists in a suburban bank near Pretoria in an attempt to gain the freedom of imprisoned nationalist leaders. But the police killed the three gunmen and one of the hostages died in the gunfire. [New York Times] Israel turned over to Egypt the largest piece of the Sinai peninsula it has relinquished so far under their peace treaty. Completing the first stage of its two-part withdrawal from the peninsula, Israel gave up 5,500 square miles, about a quarter of the total Sinai territory, which contain the strategic Mitla and Gidi mountain passes, and a major Israeli supply base. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 876.11 (-3.84, -0.44%)
S&P Composite: 113.61 (-0.09, -0.08%)
Arms Index: 0.82

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	660	20.33
Declines	832	20.91
Unchanged	407	5.86
Total Volume		47.10

* 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*
January 24, 1980	879.95	113.70	59.10
January 23, 1980	877.56	113.44	50.75
January 22, 1980	866.21	111.51	50.61
January 21, 1980	872.78	112.10	48.03
January 18, 1980	867.15	111.07	47.15
January 17, 1980	863.57	110.70	54.19
January 16, 1980	865.19	111.05	67.75
January 15, 1980	868.60	111.14	52.37
January 14, 1980	863.57	110.38	52.94
January 11, 1980	858.53	109.92	52.89