News stories from Wednesday April 2, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- An assurance from President Carter to Iran that he will pledge publicly to withhold threats and hostile statements to help gain the transfer of the American hostages to the civilian government was reported by President Aboihassan Bani-Sadr. Iran has said that the fate of the captives will be decided by its new parliament, which is still to be elected.
Washington sought to encourage Iran to take custody of the American hostages from Islamic militants by promising United States restraint "in words and actions" as long as progress was being made to resolve the 151-day crisis. The White House insisted that the pledge to Iranian authorities was consistent with past policy.
[New York Times] - A boycott of the Moscow Olympics this summer is still being pressed by the Carter administration, according to White House officials. They said that the administration had begun a drive to quell a growing revolt in the United States Olympic Committee aimed at defying the proposed boycott. [New York Times]
- Edward Kennedy pushed vigorously toward the critical April 22 Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, seeking an upset victory that his own strategists say he must achieve to keep alive his shrinking hopes of blocking President Carter's renomination. The Senator was cheered by the endorsement of Pennsylvania's largest union, but the prevailing view was that time was running out on him, especially after the President's resounding victories Tuesday in Wisconsin and Kansas. [New York Times]
- Jerry Brown attributed his unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to organizational difficulties, failure to attract attention from the media and the dominance of the Kennedy-Carter battle. The California Governor withdrew from the race after his major effort in Wisconsin failed. [New York Times]
- More than 100 people were injured, some seriously, when a freight train and a passenger train crashed head on along fog-shrouded tracks about 50 miles south of Raleigh, N.C. No one was killed. The Amtrak Silver Star, which was traveling from Miami to New York, failed to halt at a red light, railroad spokesmen said, adding that they did not know whether human error or a malfunction in a light south of the red light was to blame. [New York Times]
- St. Louis has a higher murder rate than any other big American city. The police recorded 230 homicides in 1978, more than double the rate per thousand in New York City, and last year the slayings rose by 24 percent. [New York Times]
- On the second day of the strike by 33,000 New York City bus and subway workers, teeming auto traffic in Queens and the East Side of Manhattan during the morning rush-period produced clogged streets and delays for millions of people struggling to get to work. The massive tie-ups did not ease until midday. Transit talks are to resume tomorrow.
The cost of the transit strike to New York City is $3.1 million a day, mostly in overtime pay and lost taxes, but the city's general reserve fund can absorb it, according to the city's top budget official. Another official estimated that a week-long walkout would cost private industry and workers $75 million to $100 million a day.
[New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 787.80 (+3.33, +0.42%)
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* |
| April 1, 1980 | 784.47 | 102.18 | 32.03 |
| March 31, 1980 | 785.75 | 102.09 | 35.85 |
| March 28, 1980 | 777.65 | 100.68 | 46.71 |
| March 27, 1980 | 759.98 | 98.22 | 63.77 |
| March 26, 1980 | 762.12 | 98.68 | 37.35 |
| March 25, 1980 | 767.83 | 99.19 | 43.79 |
| March 24, 1980 | 765.44 | 99.28 | 39.22 |
| March 21, 1980 | 785.15 | 102.31 | 32.22 |
| March 20, 1980 | 789.08 | 103.12 | 32.58 |
| March 19, 1980 | 800.94 | 104.31 | 36.52 |