News stories from Tuesday February 4, 1975

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

President Ford's annual economic report to Congress warned that more government stimulus through a larger budget deficit would not improve the grim economic outlook. It was accompanied by a longer report from his Council of Economic Advisers. Its chairman, Alan Greenspan, told reporters that to go beyond the stimulus suggested by Mr. Ford "would be trading off some small reduction in unemployment for inflation later" and an undesirably high average unemployment level. [New York Times] President Ford told reporters in Atlanta that economic conditions would be favorable enough in 1976 for him to run for a full term. He praised the offer of rebates by auto and appliance companies as an "application of good old free enterprise" and saw trends toward restoring consumer confidence which would in turn speed recovery. [New York Times] The House of Representatives rejected the administration's plan to raise the price of food stamps for most participants and passed, 374 to 38, a bill to freeze the price to the end of 1975. A Senate vote is expected today or tomorrow. [New York Times] The Federal Reserve Board reduced its discount rate on loans to commercial banks to 6¾ percent from 7¼ percent -- a signal for easier credit conditions. The action was interpreted as another move to stimulate the economy, retreating from its tight-money policy of last year. [New York Times] Former Prime Minister Edward Heath yielded the leadership of Britain's Conservative party after losing a party election to Margaret Thatcher, the favorite of the party's right wing. Mr. Heath, who was party chief for 10 years, led the Conservatives to defeat in two elections last year. Another vote of Conservative members of Parliament will be held next week because Mrs. Thatcher did not win by the required margin. The party's chairman, William Whitelaw, entered his candidacy after Mr. Heath withdrew. [New York Times] Representative Bella Abzug said she would seek the Democratic nomination for the New York Senate seat of James Buckley, Conservative-Republican. Other Democrats believed to be considering the race include former Mayors John Lindsay and Robert Wagner and former Representative Ogden Reid. Lt. Gov. Mary Anne Krupsak has been mentioned but is committed to support the candidacy of Mrs. Abzug, a feminist from Manhattan. [New York Times] Cambodian insurgents apparently used mines in the Mekong River for the first time to cause what became the biggest shipping loss of the five-year Cambodian war. At least four and possibly 10 supply vessels returning empty from Phnom Penh to South Vietnam were sunk. Americans are concerned for the future of the route, the only surface way of sending supplies to the isolated capital. [New York Times] Premier Sadi Irmak of Turkey announced after a meeting of the National Security Council that the severance of United States military aid due today would compel a review of ties with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Ankara reports have indicated Turkey would tell her allies she could not protect the southeastern flank of the alliance without the aid. [New York Times] The Canadian government and two provinces announced that they would invest about $1.4 billion to save a project to extract oil from the Athabasca tar lands in Alberta. An agreement was reached with a consortium of three United States companies that had said they would drop the plan because of soaring costs under the impact of inflation. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 708.07 (-3.37, -0.47%)
S&P Composite: 77.51 (-0.31, -0.40%)
Arms Index: 1.28

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	599	7.62
Declines	856	13.99
Unchanged	384	3.44
Total Volume		25.05

* 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 3, 1975	711.44	77.82	25.40
January 31, 1975	703.69	76.98	24.64
January 30, 1975	696.42	76.21	29.74
January 29, 1975	705.96	77.26	27.41
January 28, 1975	694.77	76.03	31.75
January 27, 1975	692.66	75.37	32.13
January 24, 1975	666.61	72.98	20.67
January 23, 1975	656.76	72.07	17.96
January 22, 1975	652.61	71.74	15.33
January 21, 1975	641.90	70.70	14.78