News stories from Wednesday October 12, 1977

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

The Bakke case was argued before the Supreme Court, with the Justices firing many questions at lawyers arguing for and against special programs to favor blacks in admission to professional schools that may deny entrance to some qualified whites. Although questioning frequently does not reveal a Justice's viewpoint, there were several hints that they might favor returning the case to the California courts for further examination. [New York Times] President Carter will try to save his energy program from the battering it has received in the Senate, sensing that public assessment of his first year in office largely rides on the outcome. A public relations campaign is scheduled to start at his news conference tomorrow, with a national television address later. Other administration leaders will take part. [New York Times] A systematic White House drive to overcome doubts in the general public about the Panama Canal treaties was exemplified by a meeting with 75 community leaders from Vermont, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Mr. Carter told them that if the Senate rejects the treaties, it might take 100,000 American troops to protect the canal from civil unrest. [New York Times] President Carter's tax proposals will be delayed, even at the risk of jeopardizing prospects for broad-gauge tax revision in 1978, because he has decided to avoid any action that might further dilute the weak energy legislation emerging from the Senate. Some White House advisers think it might be prudent to hold the tax proposals until after a House-Senate conference votes to report energy taxes, which is probably a month away. [New York Times] Stock prices slumped again, from a lack of buying demand rather than selling pressure. The trading pace accelerated but failed to produce the "selling climax" some analysts believe necessary to clear the market atmosphere of its fears. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 8.40 points to close at 823.98, its poorest level since Dec. 8, 1975. [New York Times] Campbell, Ohio, is losing 5,000 jobs as the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company plant is phased out. The company contributed 31 percent of municipal revenue last year. Townspeople think it is a bad dream that will go away, the Mayor says, but he expects many years of hardship. Mayors from 28 steel cities and towns are forming a coalition in Washington to coordinate local efforts. President Carter will attend a White House conference on the steel industry Thursday. [New York Times] Twelve years of talks between the Chicago Board of Education and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare have ended with agreement on a city-wide plan for desegregating public school faculties and giving bilingual schooling to children whose English is deficient. [New York Times] Cruise missiles are vital to the defense of the continent, European members of the Atlantic alliance told Defense Secretary Harold Brown at the Nuclear Planning Group meeting in Bari, Italy. They expressed concern at the Carter administration's plans to limit the missile's range in strategic arms talks with the Soviet Union. [New York Times] Arab capitals have been sent by the United States the "working paper" for convening a Geneva conference on the Middle East. President Carter and other administration officials welcomed Israel's approval of it, but they cautioned that not every aspect of the 200-word document might prove acceptable to the Arabs. [New York Times] Sweden will cancel more than $200 million in debts owed by the governments of eight poor countries, in response to persistent appeals to industrialized Western countries. "We are hoping to set an example," a Swedish United Nations delegate said. [New York Times] A return to Vietnam by a photographer and writer for the Associated Press led to a visit to the extensive tunnels built by the Viet Cong in the battle area and a meeting with the 1966 commander of a well known battalion. Of 600 men in the battalion, he was told, only four survived the war. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 823.98 (-8.40, -1.01%)
S&P Composite: 94.04 (-0.89, -0.94%)
Arms Index: 1.71

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	252	2.04
Declines	1,251	17.32
Unchanged	382	3.08
Total Volume		22.44

* 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*
October 11, 1977	832.38	94.93	18.11
October 10, 1977	840.26	95.75	10.58
October 7, 1977	840.35	95.97	16.25
October 6, 1977	842.08	96.05	18.49
October 5, 1977	837.40	95.68	18.30
October 4, 1977	842.08	96.03	20.85
October 3, 1977	851.96	96.74	19.46
September 30, 1977	847.11	96.53	21.17
September 29, 1977	840.09	95.85	21.16
September 28, 1977	834.72	95.31	17.96