News stories from Friday January 11, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A high administration official said that storage tanks for home heating oil are virtually full, though energy official Charles Owens warned against a false sense of security. Commerce Secretary Frederick Dent admitted that he doesn't know all of the sources of oil received by the United States.
Many Americans are questioning the truth of the oil shortage. Industry critic Christopher Rand claims that oil companies are withholding supplies, with the government's knowledge. Senator Henry Jackson's committee will investigate the energy crisis; Jackson wants the major oil companies to voluntarily submit facts and figures.
The administration's plan to collect data from refiners across the country is being put into effect. The American Petroleum Institute usually collects and distributes that data. API president Frank Ikard insists that an acute shortage exists, and he cautioned that the energy crisis won't be alleviated immediately once the Arab embargo is lifted.
[CBS] - Texaco released its figures regarding oil supplies, which aroused suspicions. Airlines complained that Texaco won't deliver their jet fuel allotments, and gas station owners have seen drastic cuts in fuel supplies. Texaco insists that no gasoline is being withheld and listed its reasons for lower supplies and less distribution.
Texaco president John K. McKinley stated that the main effects of the Arab oil embargo are just being felt now. At the time the embargo began, supplies had been built up in the United States, but those supplies are at a low ebb now.
Other oil companies are on the spot because of Texaco's release of data. Amoco and Mobil will also release their own figures. Exxon and Phillips are considering whether to disclose data, and Sunoco is studying the situation.
[CBS] - The oil industry is mounting a counter-attack against growing criticism being directed at it by Congress, the news media and the public. Meanwhile, the Exxon Corporation announced that, effective today, it was raising its gasoline prices by seven-tenths of 1 cent a gallon, and its prices for distillate products, including home-heating oil, by 5.1 cents a gallon. [New York Times]
- The White House investigative unit known as the plumbers uncovered evidence in late 1971 that led it to believe that a "ring" of military officers assigned to the National Security Council and elsewhere was trying to relay highly classified information on the China talks and other matters to officials in the Pentagon, well-informed sources said. It was the plumbers' investigation into the ring's activities, reliable sources said, that has repeatedly been cited by President Nixon as the "national security" matter that justified his initial attempt last spring to limit the Justice Department's investigation into the plumbers. [New York Times]
- A tape recording of a meeting between President Nixon and dairy industry representatives in 1971 indicates that the White House contention that President Nixon did not mention campaign contributions may have been false or misleading, lawyers for Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate, asserted in a brief filed in Federal District Court in Washington. It was the first time that any verbatim portion of the White House tapes has been put on the public record. [New York Times]
- A federal court in Washington ruled that the Cost of Living Council had been illegally withholding financial information submitted by the nation's largest corporations to justify price increases. The ruling by the Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals is expected to mean that much of the data in the council's files relating to costs and profits, figures that the corporations have vigorously defended as confidential, will now be available for public scrutiny. [New York Times]
- The U.S. Postal Service will build an experimental post office in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. The office will use the sun's rays to cool and heat the building. [CBS]
- Total employment in the nation was unchanged in December, according to the Labor Department, which said that lack of an increase in jobs could be attributed to the energy shortage. Neither the agency's statistics nor its officials gave specific figures about the energy-related loss of jobs, but it appeared that 50,000 could be traced to automobile dealers and gasoline stations. [New York Times]
- Secretary of State Kissinger arrived in Aswan, Egypt, on his latest mission to the Middle East, hoping to persuade Egypt and Israel to agree to general principles for negotiating an accord on separating their forces near the Suez Canal. A senior American official said Mr. Kissinger was seeking to work out a set of guidelines that the Egyptian and Israeli negotiators in Geneva could carry out in detail. Mr. Kissinger visited President Anwar Sadat at his residence, beginning what the Secretary said was "a serious conversation" that will resume tomorrow. [New York Times]
- The Japanese government announced a mandatory energy-saving program, requiring industry to reduce its use of oil and electricity by 5 to 15 percent until the end of February. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 841.48 (+18.37, +2.23%)
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* |
| January 10, 1974 | 823.11 | 92.39 | 16.12 |
| January 9, 1974 | 834.79 | 93.42 | 18.07 |
| January 8, 1974 | 861.78 | 96.12 | 18.08 |
| January 7, 1974 | 876.85 | 98.07 | 19.07 |
| January 4, 1974 | 880.23 | 98.90 | 21.70 |
| January 3, 1974 | 880.69 | 99.80 | 24.85 |
| January 2, 1974 | 855.32 | 97.68 | 12.06 |
| December 31, 1973 | 850.86 | 97.55 | 23.47 |
| December 28, 1973 | 848.02 | 97.54 | 21.31 |
| December 27, 1973 | 851.01 | 97.74 | 22.72 |