News stories from Friday February 28, 1975

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

The United States, with a growing sense of futility, continues to urge a negotiated end to the Cambodian war, but State Department officials said they were not even certain with whom the government of President Lon Nol could deal. One official said that "it is not clear to me that if Lon Nol decided to surrender, he would know where to send the surrender offer." [New York Times] Leftist guerrillas in Argentina killed John Egan, a United States honorary consul whom they had abducted, the police in Cordoba said. Mr. Egan's body was found on a road outside Cordoba, draped in the flag of the Montoneros guerrillas. [New York Times] President Ford met with the Democratic leaders of Congress and said afterward that he was ready to negotiate a compromise on energy and economic programs. He disclosed that he may postpone a second $1-a-barrel increase in the tariff on imported oil, which was scheduled to become effective tomorrow. Mr. Ford told the Democratic leaders that he opposed repeal of the oil-depletion allowance, but otherwise indicated that he had no objection to the tax reduction bill passed Thursday by the House. [New York Times] President Ford's program to free the United States by 1985 from the threat of an oil embargo, which has been bitterly criticized by members of Congress and governors for economic reasons, has aroused serious doubts among leading energy experts as to its costs, relevance and achievability. [New York Times] The Agriculture Department reported that prices farmers receive for their raw produce dropped 4 percent from Jan. 15 to Feb. 15, the fourth consecutive monthly decline. The farm price index began its current decline last Nov. 15 when it dropped 1.5 percent from mid-October. Despite lower farm prices, retail prices are expected to continue rising because of higher middleman charges for transportation, processing and selling the products, but the retail increases are expected to be lower than in 1974. [New York Times] A subway train in London sped past its final stop at the Moorgate station in the morning rush hour and smashed into the end of the tunnel, killing at least 29 people on the train and injuring more than 80. It was the worst accident in the history of London's subway system. A London Transport official said that it appeared that there had been "a lack of application of the brakes." [New York Times] A five-year treaty linking the European Common Market and 46 developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific in a trade and aid partnership was signed in Lome, Togo, in West Africa. The treaty, completed in Brussels Jan. 15 after 18 months of negotiations, is due to expand and replace two conventions that associated 22 mainly French-speaking African countries with the Common Market. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 739.05 (+7.90, +1.08%)
S&P Composite: 81.59 (+0.82, +1.02%)
Arms Index: 0.71

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	833	10.75
Declines	505	4.61
Unchanged	428	2.20
Total Volume		17.56

* 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 27, 1975	731.15	80.77	16.43
February 26, 1975	728.10	80.37	18.79
February 25, 1975	719.18	79.53	20.91
February 24, 1975	736.94	81.44	19.15
February 21, 1975	749.77	82.62	24.44
February 20, 1975	745.38	82.21	22.26
February 19, 1975	736.39	81.44	22.19
February 18, 1975	731.30	80.93	23.99
February 14, 1975	734.20	81.50	23.29
February 13, 1975	726.92	81.01	35.16