News stories from Friday January 16, 1976

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

Industrial production ended on a strong note in 1975, the Federal Reserve Board said in reporting abating inflation and interest rates and other signs of economic recovery. The Federal Reserve's industrial production index rose 1 percent in December, double the increase of the previous two months. This was further confirmation that the recovery has been continuing despite some signs of hesitation last fall. [New York Times] Administration officials said that President Ford would propose in his State of the Union and budget messages next week an increase in the Social Security tax next year, increased costs and benefits for Medicare patients, and tax relief for businesses in areas of high unemployment. They said he would also reverse a stand he took a year ago and recommend that recipients of Social Security receive full cost-of-living increases in their benefits. [New York Times] Ronald Reagan, campaigning in New Hampshire, said that the poor and minorities living in states resistant to social action might have to migrate elsewhere if those states failed to substitute adequate welfare programs for the federal ones he would like to eliminate if he were President. [New York Times] The First National City Bank and the Chase Manhattan Bank turned down a request to appear before the House Monetary Affairs subcommittee next week to discuss the circumstances that led to their inclusion on a so-called "problem list" kept by the Comptroller of the Currency. Officials of the two banks said they were prevented by federal regulations from discussing the Comptroller's findings of their financial soundness. [New York Times] Two Lebanese air force jets attacked leftist and Palestinian forces besieging the Christian town of Damur 12 miles south of Beirut. Their target was a group of gunmen who had ambushed a Lebanese military convoy traveling north from Damur. It was not clear who had ordered the air attack. Moslem leaders said that Prime Minister Rashid Karami, a Moslem, had instructed the air force not to intervene. The Palestinians and the Moslem Druses who had attacked Damur said that the order came from the Interior Minister, Camille Chamoun, who is a Christian. Damur is a stronghold of Mr. Chamoun's National Liberal Party. [New York Times] Sharp differences between Egypt and Syria, diplomats at the United Nations said, have prevented the Arab bloc from agreeing on a draft resolution that could be submitted to the Security Council for action during the Middle East session. The behind-the-scenes debate, it was said, has focused on whether to submit a resolution, favored by Syria, that would be so extreme that it would invite not only the United States but also other Council members to vote against it. The Egyptians have proposed instead that there be two resolutions. One would be a mildly worded paragraph calling for recognition of the Palestinian national or political rights. The other would be concerned with Middle East diplomacy and would include the usual Arab demand for Israel's complete withdrawal from all Arab land occupied in the June 1967 war. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 929.63 (+5.12, +0.55%)
S&P Composite: 97.00 (+0.39, +0.40%)
Arms Index: 0.76

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	925	15.57
Declines	539	6.89
Unchanged	435	3.48
Total Volume		25.94

* 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*
January 15, 1976	924.51	96.61	38.45
January 14, 1976	929.63	97.13	30.34
January 13, 1976	912.94	95.57	34.53
January 12, 1976	922.39	96.33	30.44
January 9, 1976	911.13	94.95	26.51
January 8, 1976	907.98	94.58	29.03
January 7, 1976	898.69	93.95	33.17
January 6, 1976	890.82	93.53	31.27
January 5, 1976	877.83	92.58	21.96
January 2, 1976	858.71	90.90	10.30