News stories from Friday October 18, 1974

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

Richard Nixon told his counsel, John Dean, on March 17, 1973, to "cut" the Watergate scandal "off at the pass" by putting out a story that would "basically clear the President." This conversation was on a tape played to jurors of the Watergate cover-up trial and indicated that Mr. Nixon was aware of the break-in at least four days earlier than the date he said he first learned of the affair. [New York Times] Vice President-designate Nelson Rockefeller has disclosed that as a result of an Internal Revenue Service audit of his federal income and gift taxes for the last five years, he must pay an additional $820,718 in income taxes and an additional $83,000 in gift taxes. [New York Times] The trend to lower short-term interest rates is continuing with a new round of reductions in the prime rate announced by several of the nation's leading commercial banks. In New York City the First National City Bank, the Chemical Bank and the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company lowered their prime rate to 11¼ percent. [New York Times] The saying used to be that not even God could beat Wilbur Mills in an Arkansas election. That has changed since the evening of Oct. 6, when Mr. Mills, the 65-year-old chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was a figure in an episode in Washington involving strong drink, late hours and a former striptease dancer. Now Mr. Mills is campaigning with a vigor greater than at any time since his first congressional election, 36 years ago. [New York Times] Doctors treating Margaretta (Happy) Rockefeller said laboratory examinations disclose no evidence of the spread of cancer. Dr. Jerome Urban, who performed the operation on the wife of Vice President-designate Nelson Rockefeller last Thursday, described her recovery as "nearly complete," and predicted she would be able to leave Memorial Hospital within a week. [New York Times] Senator Henry Jackson, in an announcement made at the White House, said that President Ford and Congress had formally agreed on a compromise to provide trade benefits to the Soviet Union. In return, he said, there will be a substantial relaxation in Moscow's emigration policies. Secretary of State Kissinger said he had assurances from Moscow there would be an end to harassment of would-be Soviet emigrants and Senator Jackson said he understood this to mean that at least 60,000 Jews and others could leave the Soviet Union annually. Passage of the trade bill is expected soon after Congress returns from recess on Nov. 18. [New York Times] In Moscow, word of the compromise agreement on Soviet emigration was greeted with surprise by many of those who were told of it by Western newsmen. A number of those who have sought to leave the Soviet Union for Israel were skeptical that Moscow would keep its part of the bargain. Others worried whether those Jews now in jail for trying to emigrate or Jewish scientists already refused exit visas would be permitted to leave. [New York Times] In Paris, Baron Edmond de Rothschild has uncovered a scandal involving the Israel Corporation that has rocked the State of Israel and has damaged that country's foreign fundraising efforts. The discovery was that unauthorized foreign deposits had been made in the International Credit Bank of Geneva, a bank in financial trouble. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 654.88 (+3.44, +0.53%)
S&P Composite: 72.28 (+1.11, +1.56%)
Arms Index: 1.02

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	947	9.65
Declines	468	4.85
Unchanged	360	1.96
Total Volume		16.46

* 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*
October 17, 1974	651.44	71.17	14.47
October 16, 1974	642.29	70.33	14.79
October 15, 1974	658.40	71.44	17.06
October 14, 1974	673.50	72.74	19.77
October 11, 1974	658.17	71.14	20.09
October 10, 1974	648.08	69.79	26.36
October 9, 1974	631.02	67.82	18.82
October 8, 1974	602.63	64.84	15.46
October 7, 1974	607.56	64.95	15.00
October 4, 1974	584.56	62.34	15.91