News stories from Thursday May 8, 1980

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

The U.S. abstained on an Israeli issue at the United Nations. Washington declined to join the 14 other members of the Security Council in calling on Israel to rescind an "illegal" deportation of three West Bank Arab leaders. An American delegate said that the resolution lacked balance since it did not refer to the terrorist attack that prompted the expulsions, but officials said privately that Washington was motivated by domestic political concerns. [New York Times] President Tito was buried in a simple white marble tomb in a garden pavilion overlooking Belgrade. A vast assembly of world leaders attended the interment of the man who had created modern Yugoslavia. [New York Times] The first major budget revision made on the floor of Congress occurred as the Senate voted to give $700 million in general revenue sharing funds to the states and to reduce by that amount grants for specific programs. The unexpected action was a defeat for President Carter and the Senate Budget Committee. [New York Times] Ford took drastic financial steps in an effort to cope with sagging sales and rising costs. It announced a broad customer rebate program involving every new Ford and Lincoln Mercury car and said it was cutting by $2.5 billion, or 19 percent, its capital spending plans in North America through 1984. The No. 2 auto maker is expected to announce tomorrow cuts in pay and benefits for white-collar workers. [New York Times] Emergency food stamp funds totaling $3 billion were authorized by the House to avert a suspension of the program on June 1 because money for the stamps is running out. After defeating repeated attempts by opponents of the program to change it and reduce its soaring costs, the House voted 320 to 56 to lift the $6.19 billion spending limit imposed by Congress last year. [New York Times] About 75,000 to 100,000 Cubans may be waiting in the Cuban port of Mariel to join the exodus of refugees to Florida, according to estimates by Coast Guard officials. Florida officials said they had received information that two or three freighters capable of carrying several thousand passengers were being loaded at Mariel. [New York Times] A Republican unity effort was pressed by party leaders, who announced that former President Gerald Ford would address the Republican National Convention. Mr. Ford and Ronald Reagan, the expected presidential nominee, have had cool relations since Mr. Reagan challenged Mr. Ford for the nomination in 1976.President Carter's first public trip outside the Washington area in six months is to be made tomorrow to Philadelphia, where he has major political fence mending to do. The mayor and many other Democratic leaders there supported Senator Edward Kennedy in the Pennsylvania presidential primary, and he carried the city by a 90,000-vote margin. [New York Times] Broader review of intelligence activities by Congress was agreed on by a Senate committee. It approved a bill for monitoring the intelligence agencies by the Senate and House intelligence Committees that would in effect repeal a 1974 law that permitted eight congressional committees to receive reports of covert operations. [New York Times] South Africa sought to modify policy on strict separate racial development, announcing that it would give representatives of the black majority an advisory role in future constitution-making but no direct participation. The step fell far short of the demands made by most black leaders. [New York Times] An Iranian woman was executed by a firing squad. She had served as Education Minister in the regime of the deposed Shah and was the first female member of Iran's Parliament. Meanwhile, it was confirmed that an American woman, Cynthia Dwyer of Buffalo, had been arrested and accused of being an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency. [New York Times] A key Philippine leader was freed by President Ferdinand Marcos. He allowed Benigno Aquino, his main political rival, to leave the military camp where he had been held for seven and a half years and to go to the United States. Mr. Benigno and his family left by plane for San Francisco. [New York Times] Washington conveyed Saudi concern to the Public Broadcasting Service about its planned showing of a movie next Monday. The film depicts the public executions of a Saudi princess and her lover on charges of adultery. The Saudis have made a major effort to persuade countries not to broadcast the movie since it was first shown in London last month. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 815.19 (-6.06, -0.74%)
S&P Composite: 106.13 (-1.05, -0.98%)
Arms Index: 1.60

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	765	13.09
Declines	796	21.85
Unchanged	357	4.34
Total Volume		39.28

* 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*
May 7, 1980	821.25	107.18	42.59
May 6, 1980	816.04	106.25	40.16
May 5, 1980	816.30	106.38	34.08
May 2, 1980	810.92	105.58	28.14
May 1, 1980	808.79	105.46	32.48
April 30, 1980	817.06	106.29	30.85
April 29, 1980	811.09	105.86	27.93
April 28, 1980	805.46	105.64	30.61
April 25, 1980	803.58	105.16	28.59
April 24, 1980	797.10	104.40	35.79