News stories from Thursday April 18, 1974

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

The nation suffered the largest quarterly decline in production since the recession year of 1958 -- and the steepest rate of inflation since 1951 -- during the first quarter of this year, the Commerce Department reported. The output of goods and services declined at an annual rate of 5.8 percent, while prices rose at the rate of 10.8 percent during the quarter. [New York Times] A subpoena commanding President Nixon to give the Watergate prosecutor tape recordings and other records relating to 64 White House conversations was served on the White House shortly after it had been approved by federal Judge John Sirica at the request of Leon Jaworski, the special prosecutor. The White House would say only that "counsel is considering" the subpoena, which was accepted for the President by his lawyer, James St. Clair, and is returnable on May 2. [New York Times] The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee ruled out any compromise with the White House over the committee's subpoena of some 42 White House tapes. Representative Peter Rodino said it would be unacceptable for President Nixon's lawyers to decide unilaterally which portions of the material were relevant to the committee's impeachment inquiry. [New York Times] President Nixon named Virginia Trotter, a vice chancellor of the University of Nebraska, as Assistant Secretary for Education in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, It is the first time a woman has been named to the government's highest education post, and her appointment, which is subject to Senate confirmation, is expected to meet wide approval within the education community. [New York Times] Hundreds of black men were stopped, searched and questioned on the streets of San Francisco as the police stepped up their search for one or more black men who have killed 12 white persons in a series of apparently random attacks over the last five months. The police action, begun after the latest killing on Wednesday, drew immediate protests from civil liberties groups. [New York Times] President Anwar Sadat of Egypt announced that Egypt would end more than 18 years of exclusive reliance on Soviet arms and seek arms from other sources. Mr. Sadat said he made the decision because the Soviet Union had not acted on Egyptian arms requests during the last six months. Though he did not name alternative suppliers, Arab diplomats indicated Egypt would seek arms from Arab oil nations. [New York Times] As Syrian and Israeli ground forces continued the battle for control of Mount Hermon, both sides sent jets into action. Saying it was the first time Syria had used aircraft since the October war, military spokesmen in Damascus said Syrian planes had inflicted heavy losses on Israeli positions and that one Israeli plane had been set afire by anti-aircraft fire -- a claim disputed by Israeli spokesmen in Tel Aviv. [New York Times] Four Latin American countries proposed that Cuba be invited to a hemisphere foreign ministers' meeting next March. The United States offered no objection, but asked for a poll of other participating countries before a decision is made. The stance suggested that the United States was relaxing its 13-year policy of isolating Cuba from hemisphere affairs, but a high State Department official insisted there had been no change in United States policy. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 869.92 (+2.51, +0.29%)
S&P Composite: 94.78 (+0.42, +0.45%)
Arms Index: 0.82

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	713	6.21
Declines	642	4.57
Unchanged	415	1.69
Total Volume		12.47

* 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 17, 1974	867.41	94.36	14.02
April 16, 1974	861.23	93.66	14.53
April 15, 1974	843.79	92.05	10.13
April 11, 1974	844.81	92.12	9.97
April 10, 1974	843.71	92.40	11.16
April 9, 1974	846.84	92.61	11.33
April 8, 1974	839.96	92.03	10.74
April 5, 1974	847.54	93.01	11.67
April 4, 1974	858.89	94.33	11.65
April 3, 1974	858.03	94.33	11.50