News stories from Wednesday December 15, 1976

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

President-elect Carter is ready to announce that his chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers will be Charles Schultze, President Johnson's budget director, according to well-placed staff sources. They added that he has virtually settled on Joseph Califano, another former Johnson aide, to be named to the Secretaryship of Health, Education and Welfare. [New York Times] The Secretary of the Army, Martin Hoffmann, announced partial agreement with the report of the special commission on the West Point cheating scandal that recommended reinstatement of cadets who had left the Military Academy because of it. Mr. Hoffmann appeared at a Pentagon news conference with Frank Borman, who headed the commission, and indicated action within a few weeks. [New York Times] A showdown on oil prices appeared to be developing at the meeting in Qatar of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Saudi Arabia, the most powerful producer, has come out for a six-month freeze, and seems to have some support from Indonesia and perhaps one or two other ministers. But Tayib Abdel Karim, oil minister of Iraq, who has demanded a 25 percent increase, said most participants wanted to raise prices. Libya, Venezuela and Algeria were also said to be insisting on a substantial increase. [New York Times] No American prisoners are still held as a result of the Indochina war, in the opinion of a special committee of the House of Representatives reporting on a 15-month investigation. Its chairman said there was evidence that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia could account for "many" of the 728 men listed by the Pentagon as missing and 33 as dead when the study began. [New York Times] Stock prices scored another modest gain, with Dow Jones industrials rising 3.16 points to close at 983.79, bringing its six-session advance to 23.10 points. Bond prices reacted to Federal Reserve moves to supply reserves to the banking system; fixed-income prices went up moderately and interest rates down slightly. [New York Times] Scientists lost a race on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica when the grip of ice stopped their drill with just 27 hours of work remaining to penetrate the ice shelf to explore the "lost world" sea below it. They won't be able to try again for another year. [New York Times] The proportion of welfare families in New York state receiving aid to which they were not entitled has been cut in half with the assistance of a 30-month federally sponsored drive. The statewide ineligibility rate is down from 17.5 percent in 1973 to 8.5 percent, compared with a national average of 5.5 percent. [New York Times] Spain's voters appear to have given the government an overwhelming affirmative in the national referendum on the question whether it should hold free elections next spring for a new two-chamber parliament with power to rewrite Franco-era laws. Four-fifths of those eligible voted, and with about 60 percent of the votes counted 95 percent were supporting the proposal. [New York Times] A wave of political violence in Italy has led to five deaths in two days. Most of the 100 attacks in the last two months are ascribed to extreme left-wing urban guerrillas. The Communist Party calls their style Fascist and accuses them of trying to discredit democratic institutions. Some officials believe the upsurge is aimed at discrediting the Christian Democratic government. [New York Times] A Navy airplane missile contract has apparently been awarded in defiance of a ruling by Congress that the Secretary of Defense must first certify that the weapons are ready for production. The Sparrow missile may be a test case on who decides the pace of major weapons programs. [New York Times] Belt-tightening In Britain was announced by Denis Healey, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in an effort to revive the country's economy. The moves were in part directed by the International Monetary Fund to which Britain has applied for a $3.9 billion loan, and American and German influence was also evident. He said there would be a $1.69 billion public spending cut next year and additional cuts of $2.51 billion the year after that. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 983.79 (+3.16, +0.32%)
S&P Composite: 105.14 (+0.07, +0.07%)
Arms Index: 1.08

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	896	13.21
Declines	636	10.08
Unchanged	448	5.01
Total Volume		28.30

* 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*
December 14, 1976	980.63	105.07	25.13
December 13, 1976	974.24	104.63	24.83
December 10, 1976	973.15	104.70	25.96
December 9, 1976	970.74	104.51	31.80
December 8, 1976	963.26	104.08	24.56
December 7, 1976	960.69	103.49	26.14
December 6, 1976	961.77	103.56	24.83
December 3, 1976	950.55	102.76	22.64
December 2, 1976	946.64	102.12	23.30
December 1, 1976	949.38	102.49	21.96