News stories from Wednesday January 16, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Judge John Sirica heard more testimony regarding the 18-minute gap in a White House tape. Secret Service agent Louis Sims verified the date of the tape recorder's purchase. Prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste outlined the time Rose Mary Woods had the tape in her possession. White House assistant Stephen Bull named himself, Miss Woods, Fred Buzhardt, General John Bennett and President Nixon as the only ones having access to the tape. Woods' attorney Charles Rhyne objected to the to line of questioning. Judge Sirica will soon make a decision on sending the case to the grand jury. Rhyne stated that he doesn't think the White House is using Miss Woods as a scapegoat. [CBS]
- Vice President Gerald Ford declared that a tape gap doesn't justify impeachment, but other Republicans want to put some distance between themselves and President Nixon. A cross section of Senators revealed that Nixon is nearly destroyed as a credible president because of the latest outrage. The White House refused comment. An administration spokesman insisted that President Nixon was not responsible for the tape's erasures. [CBS]
- Richard Danner, an aide to Howard Hughes, denied telling the Senate Watergate Committee that President Nixon personally asked for financial support before the 1972 re-election campaign began. [CBS]
- Last October, the Providence Journal Bulletin carried details of President Nixon's income tax payments. The IRS has traced the leak to itself; an IRS employee quit under the threat of being fired. [CBS]
- In the investigation pertaining to Pentagon spying on the White House, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger stated that he found improprieties. Schlesinger attributed the improprieties to overzealous officials in the White House. [CBS]
- Secretary of State Kissinger shuttled back and forth between Israel and Egypt during the day, arriving in Tel Aviv confident that the two sides were close to an agreement on the separation of their forces near the Suez Canal. During the late night flight to Israel, an American official said that the main problems had been solved and that an announcement might be made tomorrow. [New York Times]
- A sharp decline in automobile production combined with an unusual drop in the output of gas and electricity last month led to the first significant monthly drop in the nation's industrial production in two years, the Federal Reserve Board reported. In both cases the declines in production were attributed to the energy shortage. [New York Times]
- Daylight Savings Time, voluntary conservation programs and voltage reductions apparently cut nationwide electrical consumption by 10 percent for the second week in January, according to industry figures. Though electrical output normally grows at about 7 percent a year, the nation actually consumed 4 percent less than in the same week a year ago. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 856.09 (+9.69, +1.14%)
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 15, 1974 | 846.40 | 94.23 | 13.25 |
| January 14, 1974 | 840.18 | 93.42 | 14.61 |
| January 11, 1974 | 841.48 | 93.66 | 15.14 |
| 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 |