News stories from Thursday December 23, 1971

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

President Nixon granted clemency to ex-Teamster president James Hoffa, after four years and nine months of his 13-year prison term. [CBS] President Nixon signed a bill giving more than $1.5 billion for cancer research, and he vowed an all-out government effort to halt the disease. Senator Edward Kennedy sponsored the bill. [CBS] New rulings issued by the Price Board: postal rates are exempted from controls; all workers, including federal and state employees, are subject to wage controls. Blue Cross-Blue Shield announced a rate cut for federal employees. Cost of Living Council director Donald Rumsfeld said that controls on interest rates won't be used. [CBS] The U.S. Postal Service announced a rate hike for third class mail, effective January 24, 1972. [CBS] The Agriculture Department is being sued to prevent cuts in food stamps. Welfare rights organizations in New York, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire claim that benefits would be unlawfully low. [CBS] The FCC has given up its study of Bell Telephone's rate increase request because the FCC doesn't have the proper budget to conduct an investigation. [CBS] Secretary of State William Rogers announced that U.S. air attacks in Indochina will continue as being essential to Vietnamization. Air activity has been extended to Laos and Cambodia. The air war remains hot; the closest U.S. strike to Hanoi was reported today. [CBS] Secretary of State William Rogers has described North Vietnam's treatment of POWs as "barbaric"; Rogers is now hedging on his statement because of the U.S. government's effort to obtain the release of prisoners of war. The State Department reported that Bob Hope's effort regarding the POWs is unofficial. Hope is seeking a visa to visit North Vietnam to discuss the release of prisoners. [CBS] Sheik Mujibur Rahman may meet with Pakistani leaders, especially Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. India announced that the mass return of refugees to Bangladesh will begin January 1. [CBS] Upon being freed from prison, Jimmy Hoffa headed for St. Louis. Hoffa had been denied parole three times before being granted clemency by President Nixon; Nixon also extended presidential clemency to 253 other prisoners. Hoffa said that the leadership of the Teamsters is in good hands and he appreciates Mr. Nixon's action. One condition of Hoffa's release is that he cannot be involved in any union activities until 1980. [CBS]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 881.17 (-3.69, -0.42%)
S&P Composite: 100.74 (-0.44, -0.43%)
Arms Index: 0.80

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	582	6.36
Declines	864	7.59
Unchanged	308	2.06
Total Volume		16.01

* 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 22, 1971	884.86	101.18	18.93
December 21, 1971	888.32	101.80	20.46
December 20, 1971	885.01	101.55	23.81
December 17, 1971	873.80	100.26	18.27
December 16, 1971	871.39	99.74	21.07
December 15, 1971	863.76	98.54	16.89
December 14, 1971	855.14	97.67	16.07
December 13, 1971	858.79	97.97	17.02
December 10, 1971	856.75	97.69	17.51
December 9, 1971	852.15	96.96	14.71