News stories from Thursday March 21, 1974

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

The United States Court of Appeals refused to prevent a secret grand jury report on President Nixon's possible role in a Watergate cover-up from going to the House Judiciary Committee. In rejecting an appeal by lawyers for several Watergate defendants that the action might jeopardize their rights, the court gave the lawyers until 5 P.M. Monday to appeal to the Supreme Court. [New York Times] Leon Jaworski, the special Watergate prosecutor, disclosed that he had subpoenaed additional White House documents, but neither he nor White House spokesmen would say what items were covered by the writ, which was served last Friday. The President's lawyer would say only that a response was "under consideration," but there was no indication of what that response might be. If the President decides to fight the subpoena, it could provoke another constitutional confrontation. [New York Times] The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said that granting the White House demand for an adversary role in the impeachment inquiry could turn the House proceeding into a full-scale trial and thus usurp the Senate's constitutional role as the sole judge of a president's conduct in office. Representative Peter Rodino made the argument as Republican members continued to support the White House bid to cross-examine witnesses and introduce evidence to the inquiry. [New York Times] Acting on orders from the judge in the Mitchell-Stans trial, the government has given defense attorneys a transcript of part of a tape recorded conversation between President Nixon and John Dean. The transcript, which is believed to contain evidence favorable to Maurice Stans, was handed over Wednesday night. The disclosure came as the day's proceedings were postponed until Monday because of the illness of a juror. [New York Times] Led by surging food costs, consumer prices rose 1.3 percent last month, according to the government, which tempered the grim report with some brighter economic news -- evidence that the slowdown in production and employment may be milder than had been feared. [New York Times] A Senate-House conference committee agreed to increase the minimum hourly wage from $1.60 to $2 as of May 1, but adjourned without approving a final bill because of a dispute over some details. [New York Times] Secretary of State Kissinger said that relations between the Soviet Union and the United States had entered "a more difficult period," but that he would strive during his visit to Moscow to sustain the policy of relaxing tensions between the two countries. Mr. Kissinger, who leaves for Moscow on Saturday, held a news conference and acknowledged publicly for the first time that American officials were concerned about the reception he will receive in Moscow. [New York Times] President Hafez al-Assad of Syria is expected to confer with Soviet leaders in Moscow on Sunday, according to a knowledgeable Lebanese newspaper. It said the discussions, to be held before Mr. Kissinger's arrival later in the week, would center on the issue of Syrian-Israeli disengagement and Syrian demands for Israeli withdrawal from territory seized in 1967. [New York Times] As a 26-year-old Londoner was held without bail on a charge growing out of the attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne, the police said they were convinced the attack was a "one-man" operation and was not politically motivated. [New York Times] Pope Paul VI has called on Roman Catholics to increase devotion to the Virgin Mary as fully in keeping with modern trends in the women's rights movement and the search for Christian unity. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 875.47 (+3.13, +0.36%)
S&P Composite: 97.34 (-0.23, -0.24%)
Arms Index: 0.97

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	577	4.64
Declines	787	6.17
Unchanged	422	2.15
Total Volume		12.96

* 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 20, 1974	872.34	97.57	12.96
March 19, 1974	867.57	97.23	12.80
March 18, 1974	874.22	98.05	14.01
March 15, 1974	887.83	99.28	14.50
March 14, 1974	889.78	99.65	19.77
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