News stories from Thursday August 7, 1975

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

Gerald Ford, who came to power at a time of deep national crisis as an unelected President from a minority party, has spent much of his first year in office trying to reverse federal social and economic policies begun nearly 50 years ago. Given the circumstances, he has been surprisingly successful. The first of three articles assessing his first year in office appears today. [New York Times] The Labor Department reported that the government's Wholesale Price Index, spurred mainly by higher farm and food prices, rose 1.2 percent in July. A rise had been widely forecast by government officials. It was the second largest monthly increase this year, but was still far less than the typical monthly rise in inflation-ridden 1974. [New York Times] Federal investigators were said to have placed Charles O'Brien, James Hoffa's foster son -- and a key figure in the investigation of the disappearance of the former teamsters union president -- in the vicinity of the restaurant where Mr. Hoffa was known to have been before he disappeared at about the time of the disappearance. [New York Times] Herbert Itkin, the informant whose testimony helped send more than a dozen New York City officials and organized-crime figures to jail, has become involved in a Byzantine, high-stakes industrial espionage case in Southern California, where he and his family were relocated by the government to start a new life under a new name. [New York Times] The Good Humor Corporation and a present and former officer have been indicted by a grand jury on charges of producing and selling ice cream with an illegally high bacteria content. The 244-count indictment was announced by District Attorney Eugene Gold of Brooklyn. [New York Times] A federal grand jury in New Orleans indicted a corporate affiliate of two leading grain companies, the manager of its New Orleans division and 21 other persons on multiple charges, including conspiracy to steal grain from foreign shipments. [New York Times] The 53 hostages who were herded into cell-like rooms in the United States Embassy in Kuala Lumpur last Monday lived with a constant threat of violence that underlay a veneer of courtesy shown them by the five Japanese terrorists who were their captors. One of the 53 recalled today -- after the last of the hostages had been freed and the plane carrying the terrorists had departed for Libya -- a moment of unbearable tension when one terrorist, "the most nervous" of them all," was "fiddling with a grenade he was carrying, and dropped it." [New York Times] Gen. Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, chief of Portugal's security forces, flew to Oporto, in northern Portugal, to try to put an end to a wave of anti-Communist violence in the region and restore military discipline. He emphasized that what was needed in Portugal was "a firm government, a coherent government, but above all a firm policy that avoids the use of repressive force." He is a warm admirer of Cuba. He made his statements, which were unusually mild, after a meeting with officers of the Oporto regional command. When he left the command, he was booed by onlookers. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 815.79 (+2.12, +0.26%)
S&P Composite: 86.30 (+0.05, +0.06%)
Arms Index: 0.95

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	619	5.03
Declines	671	5.17
Unchanged	479	2.16
Total Volume		12.36

* 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*
August 6, 1975	813.67	86.25	16.28
August 5, 1975	810.15	86.23	15.47
August 4, 1975	818.05	87.15	12.62
August 1, 1975	826.50	88.75	13.32
July 31, 1975	831.51	88.75	14.54
July 30, 1975	831.66	88.83	16.15
July 29, 1975	824.86	88.19	19.00
July 28, 1975	827.83	88.69	14.85
July 25, 1975	834.09	89.29	15.11
July 24, 1975	840.27	90.07	20.55