News stories from Thursday March 14, 1974

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

The White House announced that Secretary of the Treasury Shultz has resigned and will leave his cabinet post in May. Mr. Shultz, the last remaining member of the original Nixon cabinet, is regarded as almost as powerful as Secretary of State Kissinger, with an influence on administration affairs extending far beyond the Treasury. No successor was named, but William Simon, the federal energy chief, is regarded as a likely choice. [New York Times] Four men, including three members of the original Watergate burglary team, pleaded not guilty to charges growing out of the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist. Defense attorneys said that President Nixon would be called as a witness, and legal experts said his refusal to testify might constitute grounds for dismissal of the charges. [New York Times] Laurence Richardson testified at the Mitchell-Stans trial that he once warned his employer, Robert Vesco, that he was going to drop a public "bombshell." Five days later, Mr. Richardson testified, he did -- by walking into the United States Attorney's office and implicating John Mitchell and Maurice Stans in Mr. Vesco's tangled affairs. [New York Times] The evaporating gasoline shortage has produced a new worry for service station operators: price wars. With the end of the Arab oil embargo not yet confirmed officially, motorists are already becoming increasingly price conscious and they have a wide range of prices to choose from. [New York Times] The Arab oil countries, which decided to lift the embargo on sales to the United States, have agreed to review their action in two months, according to informed Arab sources. The aim is to insure satisfactory use of American influence on Israel. [New York Times] Key government and oil industry officials expressed confidence that the oil embargo had been lifted and that Saudi Arabia, the leading Arab producer, would soon increase production to pre-October levels. White House and State Department officials were more cautious in their public statements, however, and stressed that there had been no official confirmation that the embargo had been lifted. [New York Times] Portugal's biggest political crisis in more than a decade erupted as the nation's two leading generals were dismissed because of their opposition to Portugal's war policy in Africa. The generals, who feel the military cannot defeat guerrilla forces in Portugal's African colonies, have called for concessions leading to a federation. [New York Times] Despite persistent rumors throughout the day of his imminent release, by nightfall there had been no word on whether Victor Samuelson would be freed by the Argentine guerrillas who kidnapped him last December. Mr. Samuelson is an executive with the Argentine subsidiary of the Exxon Corporation, which paid $14.2 million in ransom to a Marxist group known as the People's Revolutionary Army. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 889.78 (-1.88, -0.21%)
S&P Composite: 99.65 (-0.09, -0.09%)
Arms Index: 1.11

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	747	8.66
Declines	648	8.34
Unchanged	395	2.77
Total Volume		19.77

* 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*
March 13, 1974	891.66	99.74	16.82
March 12, 1974	887.12	99.15	17.25
March 11, 1974	888.45	98.88	18.47
March 8, 1974	878.05	97.78	16.21
March 7, 1974	869.06	96.94	14.50
March 6, 1974	879.85	97.98	19.14
March 5, 1974	872.42	97.32	21.98
March 4, 1974	853.18	95.53	12.27
March 1, 1974	851.92	95.53	12.88
February 28, 1974	860.53	96.22	13.68