News stories from Friday February 15, 1980

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

Iran's reluctance to set a time for the release of the American hostages is the major obstacle to resolving the crisis, authoritative sources at the United Nations said. President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr was described as being "enormously committed" to freeing the hostages, but he was said to be cautious about setting a time for their release because he does not to clash with their captors. [New York Times] A covert shipment of American arms to Afghan insurgent troops was made last January, White House officials said. The decision to send arms to native forces resisting Soviet troops in their country was made by the Special Coordination Committee of the National Security Council, and was subsequently approved by President Carter, an official said. [New York Times] The International Olympic Committee rebuked organizers of the XIII Winter Games in Lake Placid over a lapse in protocol. The Soviet Union medalists and other delegation members failed to attend the first Olympic awards ceremony at the Games, apparently because of a mix-up. Meanwhile, state officials assumed more control over the Olympic bus system, which has been in disarray.Eric Heiden won the first gold medal for the United States at the XIII Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. Heiden, 21 years old and from Madison, Win, sped to an Olympic record in the men's 500-meter speed skating race, the first and shortest event of the five men's skating races. His time was 38.03 seconds, 34 hundredths of a second ahead of Yevgeny Kulikov of the Soviet Union, who holds the world record in the 500. [New York Times] Producer prices rose 1.5 percent in January, leading to fears that inflationary forces were increasing rather than subsiding. This was the largest monthly gain in more than five years. Rises in producer prices, which are the ones retailers pay for goods, generally presage increases in consumer prices. Several months of continuing sharp rises in retail prices were predicted by economists.The Federal Reserve discount rate was raised a full percentage point to a record 13 percent in response to sharply rising prices and persistent inflationary expectations. [New York Times] Student leaders remained firm in their opposition to President Carter's proposed draft registration after a meeting at the White House where the President appealed for their support. More than 250 student leaders from campuses across the country attended the meeting. [New York Times] Mayor Jane Byrne told firemen on picket lines her side of the impasse in negotiations that led to the strike in Chicago. She made several unannounced visits to firehouses and told the firefighters that "you are not getting the truth from the union leaders." Her talks turned into debates with the strikers. [New York Times] Vague legal definitions of "obscenity" hinder efforts to curb pornography. A Supreme Court decision 37 years ago that obscene material does not have the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of expression made possible the undercover investigation that led to the indictment Thursday of 55 pornography dealers in 10 states, but state and local courts have difficulty harmonizing their obscenity statutes with the Supreme Court's language. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 884.98 (-8.79, -0.98%)
S&P Composite: 115.41 (-1.31, -1.12%)
Arms Index: 0.86

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	382	11.69
Declines	1,130	29.88
Unchanged	372	5.11
Total Volume		46.68

* 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*
February 14, 1980	893.77	116.72	50.55
February 13, 1980	903.84	118.44	65.22
February 12, 1980	898.98	117.90	48.08
February 11, 1980	889.59	117.12	58.66
February 8, 1980	895.73	117.95	57.86
February 7, 1980	885.49	116.28	57.69
February 6, 1980	881.83	115.72	51.95
February 5, 1980	876.62	114.66	41.87
February 4, 1980	875.09	114.37	43.06
February 1, 1980	881.48	115.12	46.65