News stories from Monday August 11, 1975

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

The United States Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia ruled that President Ford had no authority to levy fees of $2 a barrel on imported oil, as he has done this year. In a divided opinion, a three-judge panel said that the only authority granted by Congress to the President to limit imports was through "direct" methods of import quotas. The court also struck down the import fee of 21 cents a barrel imposed by President Nixon in May, 1973. The import fee has not been invalidated, however. The issue now goes back to a lower court for a finding on "appropriate relief." The administration may also decide to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, or ask for a rehearing by the full Court of Appeals. [New York Times] The family of Edgar Bronfman, head of the billion-dollar Seagram Company Ltd., said it had received a "substantial" ransom demand from the alleged kidnappers of his oldest son, Samuel Bronfman II, who is 21 years old. A spokesman for the family said that the elder Mr. Bronfman would comply with the ransom demand and the instructions received in a letter, although the letter gave no evidence that the writers actually were holding his son. [New York Times] Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz, following a report by his department that dry weather had reduced prospects for this year's corn crop, called on grain companies to withhold temporarily further sales to the Soviet Union. [New York Times] High administration officials said that President Ford has delayed indefinitely his plans to visit India this fall because of a tight schedule and the uncertain political situation in India under the state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. [New York Times] The United States vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam to the United Nations. Daniel P. Moynihan, the new American representative, reminded the Security Council that the United States had never before used its veto power to block an application for membership, while other nations had done so. He said the United States would have voted for admission if the Council had not refused even to consider South Korea's application for membership last week. In barring South Korea, Mr. Moynihan said, the Council had in effect proclaimed "selective universality, a principle which in practice admits only new members acceptable to the totalitarian states." [New York Times] Hundreds of demonstrators broke through a protective cordon around the Communist headquarters in the northern Portuguese city of Braga and set fire to the building. About 20 people inside the building escaped. The incident followed an afternoon and night of violence in which 30 persons were injured, most of them with gunshot wounds. Meanwhile, in Lisbon a group of nine anti-Communist military officers said their campaign against Premier Vasco Goncalves was gaining support. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 823.76 (+6.02, +0.74%)
S&P Composite: 86.55 (+0.53, +0.62%)
Arms Index: 0.64

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	585	5.83
Declines	739	4.70
Unchanged	455	1.82
Total Volume		12.35

* 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*
August 8, 1975	817.74	86.02	11.66
August 7, 1975	815.79	86.30	12.39
August 6, 1975	813.67	86.25	16.28
August 5, 1975	810.15	86.23	15.47
August 4, 1975	818.05	87.15	12.62
August 1, 1975	826.50	88.75	13.32
July 31, 1975	831.51	88.75	14.54
July 30, 1975	831.66	88.83	16.15
July 29, 1975	824.86	88.19	19.00
July 28, 1975	827.83	88.69	14.85