News stories from Tuesday July 8, 1980

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

Federal aid for the auto industry was announced by President Carter in a brief visit to economically depressed Detroit. The government package would ease regulatory standards governing emissions and safety, provide credit to car dealers, accelerate depreciation tax writeoffs and speed steps that could ultimately lessen the competition of foreign imports. [New York Times] A key sign of continuing inflation was found in the latest government report on the major measure of wholesale prices. The government said that the index of producers' prices for finished goods rose eight-tenths of 1 percent in June, rebounding from the abnormally low April and May figures to a level regarded as indicative of a basic inflation rate of about 10 percent. [New York Times] A Republican split over equal rights based on sex was reflected in a plank adopted by the party's platform-writing panel. It supported equal rights in principle, but omitted any endorsement of the proposed equal rights amendment to the Constitution from the party's platform for the first time since 1940. [New York Times] President Carter's renomination would be virtually guaranteed under a proposal adopted by the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Convention. If the full convention adopts the proposal, which most politicians consider highly likely, all delegates would be required to vote on the first nominating ballot for the candidate they were elected to support. [New York Times] The chairman of NBC lost her duties hours after she issued a statement denying that anyone had requested her resignation. Soon after learning that she had been relieved of her duties as chairman, Jane Pfeiffer suggested that Fred Silverman, president of the broadcasting company, had ordered her removal to save his own job. He declined to comment. [New York Times] The deaths of 13 aliens in a desert in Arizona may not have been premeditated, according to investigators. They said they had discovered that two of the four smugglers believed to have deliberately abandoned the group of Salvadorans to die were among the 14 survivors taken into custody. The investigators also said that the body of a third smuggler was among those recovered from the scorched desert. [New York Times] More black and women police officers in Cincinnati are expected as a result of an agreement reached between the city and the Justice Department requiring new hiring and promotion practices. The accord resolves a job discrimination suit. [New York Times] A fugitive surrendered after 10 years. Cathlyn Wilkerson, who fled an accidental bombing that destroyed a Greenwich Village town house and killed three people in 1970, turned herself in to the Manhattan authorities. The 35-year-old suspect, who was accompanied by two lawyers, was linked to the Weathermen, a radical underground group. [New York Times] Mayor Koch deplored racial quotas upheld by the Supreme Court in awarding government contracts, calling such rules an "abomination." He told a group of legislators he did not believe that the ruling was unconstitutional, but "I just happen to think it's wrong." The Mayor compared the decision to a lawsuit that has led New York City to stop hiring police officers until a resolution of charges that qualifying tests were racially biased. [New York Times] Eroded U.S. power in Central America has resulted from years of neglect of a region where Washington traditionally held influence. Caught off guard by the revolution last year in Nicaragua, the United States has suddenly begun promoting radical changes in such countries as El Salvador and Guatemala in the hope of averting leftist takeovers. But the campaign may be too late to forestall clashes between political extremes. [New York Times] A drive to enforce Islamic rules in Iran was intensified by Ayatollah Khomeini. Seven men convicted of drug trafficking were executed by firing squad on a Teheran street, and 131 women were dismissed from the army and police force because they arrived for work without Islamic veils. [New York Times] Lebanon's Christian alliance crumbled as a result of savage clashes that killed at least 75 people in the Beirut area. Observers believe that Bashir Gemayel, the military leader of one faction on the Christian right, began a sudden assault against forces of another major faction as part of an effort to unify all the Christian military forces under his command. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 897.35 (-0.86, -0.10%)
S&P Composite: 117.84 (-0.45, -0.38%)
Arms Index: 1.06

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	728	19.45
Declines	787	22.25
Unchanged	368	4.13
Total Volume		45.83

* 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*
July 7, 1980	898.21	118.29	42.54
July 3, 1980	888.91	117.46	47.23
July 2, 1980	876.02	115.68	42.85
July 1, 1980	872.27	114.93	34.34
June 30, 1980	867.92	114.24	29.90
June 27, 1980	881.83	116.00	33.11
June 26, 1980	883.45	116.19	45.10
June 25, 1980	887.54	116.72	46.50
June 24, 1980	877.30	115.14	37.73
June 23, 1980	873.81	114.51	34.18