News stories from Wednesday December 29, 1971

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

American bombing raids on North Vietnam continued. Hanoi claims that four more U.S. jets were downed. U.S. officials refused comment but confirmed last week's captures. Lt. Kenneth Wells, Maj. Leland Hildebrand, Lt. Samuel Vaughan and Maj. Kenneth Johnson were paraded before newsmen at a Hanoi press conference. Hanoi vowed that the release of American POWs won't happen until the war ends. [CBS] The Kushner family in Danville, Virginia, got a letter from their POW son on Christmas and heard a recording of their son from Viet Cong radio. Mrs. Kushner expressed despair over the recent bombings and Secretary of Defense Laird's stance regarding the bombing of North Vietnam. [CBS] Bomb strikes will continue as long as weather permits. Most targets are below the 20th parallel, at least 75 miles away from Hanoi. The reasons for U.S. bombing strikes include the situations in Laos and Cambodia, and North Vietnam's preparation for a possible offensive in South Vietnam later this year. [CBS] Peking called the U.S. bombing policy barbarous and hypocritical, but the situation poses no threat to President Nixon's upcoming visit to China. [CBS] North Vietnam refused to accept Christmas gift packages for American POWs. [CBS] Conservative Republican representative John Ashbrook will challenge President Nixon in 1972 by entering the New Hampshire and Florida primaries. Ashbrook criticized the President for failing on his pledges to conservatives. [CBS] Campaigning in Wisconsin, New York City Mayor John Lindsay called the bombing of North Vietnam "sheer madness". [CBS] Retired Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan died today. [CBS] A trade treaty between the Soviet Union and Bangladesh was announced, and the Soviets offered technical aid to the new regime. [CBS] Britain removed its troops from Malta after a financial dispute with the Maltese government. Prime Minister Dom Mintoff implied that the Soviets could occupy military bases on Malta. [CBS] Switzerland is refusing to extradite LSD advocate Timothy Leary to America. Leary, who previously escaped from a California prison, was jailed for smuggling marijuana. [CBS] President Nixon chose David Kennedy to be U.S. ambassador to NATO. [CBS] President Nixon and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt ended their summit talks in Florida. The talks were useful, and the President said that German-American relations are excellent. U.S. troops in Europe were the chief issue; Nixon reassured Brandt that no deal with the Soviets regarding troop removal will be made without consulting NATO. [CBS]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 893.66 (+3.68, +0.41%)
S&P Composite: 102.21 (+0.26, +0.26%)
Arms Index: 1.05

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	949	9.37
Declines	525	5.46
Unchanged	290	2.32
Total Volume		17.15

* 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 28, 1971	889.98	101.95	15.09
December 27, 1971	881.47	100.95	11.89
December 23, 1971	881.17	100.74	16.00
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