News stories from Friday March 8, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Nixon asked Congress to pass campaign reforms. Presidential counsel Bryce Harlow admitted that many of the reform ideas stemmed from the President's own 1972 landslide election. The President also called for repeal of the equal time provision of the broadcasting law. [CBS]
- The criminal conspiracy trial of John Mitchell and Maurice Stans continued in New York. Prosecution witness Harry Sears' testimony established a direct link between the White House and fugitive financier Robert Vesco. The President's brother Donald Nixon and John Dean were also mentioned. [CBS]
- Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield stated that he doesn't think President Nixon will be impeached. House Ways and Means Committee chairman Wilbur Mills predicted the President will resign but declined to give reasons for his prediction.
The congressional investigation of the President's income tax returns will bring pressure for his resignation. Mills warned that the President's income taxes will be a greater concern than Watergate. When it is over, the investigation will reveal that President Nixon owes a substantial amount of back taxes.
[CBS] - Watergate burglar James McCord accused President Nixon of deliberately concealing and repressing evidence. [CBS]
- Confusion surrounded the Arab countries' proposed meeting to lift the oil embargo against the United States. [CBS]
- The nation's unemployment rate held steady at 5.2 percent of the labor force in February after three months of increases, the Labor Department reported. In a special analysis, the department found that a maximum of 500,000 workers may have lost their jobs directly or indirectly through the energy shortage, mainly in the automobile industry. [New York Times]
- Cable television companies rushed to wire the cities when the Federal Communications Commission, on March 31, 1972, issued new rules that effectively lifted a long-standing "freeze" on the top 100 television markets, but what many had thought would bring a communications revolution by 1974 has instead turned into a retreat. [New York Times]
- Premier Golda Meir of Israel charged that Syria had planned military action earlier this week to recapture the enclave of Syrian territory that Israel seized during the October war. Mrs. Meir said that Israel had immediately asked "foreign governments" to do what they could to avoid a new outbreak of fighting. This was assumed to be an allusion to the United States, which has been in direct contact with Syria, and the Soviet Union to work out ways to defuse the Syrian front.
President Hafez al-Assad of Syria said that his country would remain at war with Israel until "all the Arab territory is liberated." He spoke at a university rally.
[New York Times]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 878.05 (+8.99, +1.03%)
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* |
| March 7, 1974 | 869.06 | 96.94 | 14.50 |
| March 6, 1974 | 879.85 | 97.98 | 19.14 |
| March 5, 1974 | 872.42 | 97.32 | 21.98 |
| March 4, 1974 | 853.18 | 95.53 | 12.27 |
| March 1, 1974 | 851.92 | 95.53 | 12.88 |
| February 28, 1974 | 860.53 | 96.22 | 13.68 |
| February 27, 1974 | 863.42 | 96.40 | 18.73 |
| February 26, 1974 | 859.51 | 96.00 | 15.86 |
| February 25, 1974 | 851.38 | 95.03 | 12.90 |
| February 22, 1974 | 855.99 | 95.39 | 16.36 |