News stories from Wednesday April 26, 1978

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

Accusations against Bert Lance of civil fraud and many violations of federal banking and securities laws were filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Comptroller of the Currency. They said that before Mr. Lance became federal budget director, his banking practices had involved deceit, misstatements of fact and other offenses for his and his family's benefit and to the detriment of the banks he ran. The 90-page civil complaint also named as defendants the National Bank of Georgia and the Calhoun First National Bank, both formerly headed by Mr. Lance. The banks and Mr. Lance agreed to a consent order that restrains them from any future violations of the anti-fraud, reporting and proxy provisions of the securities laws. [New York Times] A drop in oil imports was the main factor in a shrinkage of the United States trade deficit in March. The deficit of $2.8 billion reported by the government was a strong improvement over February, but still worse than the average for last year. While the March total was well below the record $4.5 billion deficit in February, it gave little encouragement to economists because the continuing deficit fuels inflation and harms business and job prospects. Last year, the trade deficit averaged $2.2 billion a month. [New York Times] The major stock rally continued on heavy volume. Trading on the Big Board eased to 44.43 million shares, the fifth busiest session on record, from Tuesday's 55.8 million shares. The market was aided by reports of a sharp drop in the monthly trade deficit and generally favorable earnings. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 3.38 points to 836.97. [New York Times] Anti-homosexual groups in several cities are accelerating their drives to repeal local homosexual rights measures. In St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday, a rights ordinance was rescinded by a strong margin in an unusually large turnout for an off-year election. In the next four weeks ordinances barring discrimination on the ground of sexual preference will be on the ballots in Wichita, Kan., and Eugene, Ore. [New York Times] Lobbyists would have to disclose many of their activities under a controversial bill approved by the House. The vote was 259 to 140. The measure had both strong backing and opposition. Analysts expect the Senate to pass a more stringent bill. [New York Times] Corporations cannot be barred by states from spending unlimited funds to influence the outcome of public referendums, the Supreme Court ruled. The tribunal cited the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech in a decision with broad implications for corporate political activity. In the 5 to 4 decision, the Court struck down a Massachusetts law that made it a crime for banks and other corporations to finance propaganda campaigns for or against ballot issues that do not directly affect their interests. [New York Times] A conspiracy charge was made by the United States against a 35-year-old American recently extradited from Chile in the murder of Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean Ambassador who was killed when a bomb destroyed his car in Washington in 1976. At a bail hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, a government lawyer identified Michael Townley, who had lived in Chile since 1958, as an agent of the Chilean intelligence service. [New York Times] A top-level mission to Peking was announced by the White House, which said that Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, would fly there next month for the highest-level talks with Chinese leaders since last summer. The unexpected announcement and later briefings sought to describe the trip in as low-key a manner as possible. But privately officials said that one goal was the possibility of trying to end the anomaly in relations due to the Taiwan issue and perhaps eventually establish full diplomatic ties. [New York Times] The gap between Indonesia's rich and poor is persistent and is raising mounting questions among intellectuals about the 12-year-old government led by President Suharto. The disillusionment is also focused on the businessmen who have reaped the profits of Indonesia's natural resources and the technocrats who have shaped the country's development policy and carried it out in close concert with the military-dominated government. [New York Times] Bonn-Washington relations have improved after months of discord and sagging West German confidence in the United States. Bonn government officials expressed satisfaction about reports that American negotiators apparently succeeded in defending West German interests in strategic arms talks with the Soviet Union. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 836.97 (+3.38, +0.41%)
S&P Composite: 96.82 (+0.18, +0.19%)
Arms Index: 0.84

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	773	20.88
Declines	749	17.03
Unchanged	409	6.52
Total Volume		44.43

* 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*
April 25, 1978	833.59	96.64	55.80
April 24, 1978	826.06	95.77	34.52
April 21, 1978	812.80	94.34	31.54
April 20, 1978	814.54	94.54	43.23
April 19, 1978	808.04	93.86	35.06
April 18, 1978	803.27	93.43	38.97
April 17, 1978	810.12	94.45	63.49
April 14, 1978	795.13	92.92	52.28
April 13, 1978	775.21	90.98	31.58
April 12, 1978	766.29	90.11	26.22