News stories from Thursday February 5, 1976

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

Liberal Democrats, in a dramatic comeback in the House, defeated the administration-backed natural gas deregulation bill, making it unlikely that any such measure would be passed by Congress this year. The liberals, who lost a key vote on Tuesday, voted 205-201 to substitute for the deregulation bill one that would continue federal regulation on a narrower basis than at present. [New York Times] James E. Smith, the Comptroller of the Currency, said that the United States banking system was sound, but he disclosed that there were 28 national banks in either critical or serious financial trouble. Mr. Smith, who testified before the Senate Banking Committee, said that there had been an increase recently in the amount of risky foreign loans to either businesses or governments by the 20 largest banks. [New York Times] Senator Frank Church called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate evidence of criminal activity by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He said that his committee on intelligence had found evidence of criminal activity by Intelligence agencies in eight major areas, including possible perjury before congressional committees, He made the proposal on his own behalf. The question of a special prosecutor has not been placed before his committee. The White House later issued a statement strongly disagreeing with the proposal. [New York Times] The American Medical Association and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association have criticized the five-part series on incompetent physicians and inept medical practices published in the New York Times last week. The A.M.A. said that the articles "stated many things that needed stating," but that some of the conclusions were "unjustified" by the evidence on which they relied. The pharmaceutical association described the article in the series concerning the misrepresentation of drugs as "dangerously negative and misleading," There were other responses from physicians, nurses, dentists, professional organizations and patients, many of whom said they had suffered as result of medical practices such as those described in the series. [New York Times] The National Academy of Sciences has found that the efficacy of chemical insect control is declining alarmingly. Alternative methods must be developed to supplement the chemicals, the academy said, or the United States may have difficulty in meeting its goals for increased food production. Many pest species have apparently developed a genetic resistance to insecticides, and it was suggested that biological weapons, such as viruses and microbes, be used against them. [New York Times] International relief workers believe that more than 3,000 people were killed by the earthquake that struck Guatemala Wednesday morning. "It's really impossible to know accurately because many villages are still cut off," William Salas, a United States CARE director said. The coordinator of a special Defense Ministry emergency committee said that there were 3,000 dead, 15,000 hurt and more than 15,000 homeless. [New York Times] A proposal that the French Communist Party broaden its appeal by dropping a key Marxist doctrine and seek power through democratic means was endorsed by delegates to the party's national congress in Paris. Thus, the French party, the second largest Communist organization in Western Europe, appeared to be headed toward what its leader, Georges Marchais, said was a policy of "communism under the French colors." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 964.81 (-11.81, -1.21%)
S&P Composite: 100.39 (-1.52, -1.49%)
Arms Index: 1.83

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	480	5.88
Declines	1,093	24.52
Unchanged	356	3.38
Total Volume		33.78

* 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*
February 4, 1976	976.62	101.91	38.27
February 3, 1976	972.61	101.18	34.08
February 2, 1976	971.35	100.87	24.00
January 30, 1976	975.28	100.86	38.51
January 29, 1976	968.75	100.11	29.80
January 28, 1976	951.35	98.53	27.37
January 27, 1976	957.81	99.07	32.07
January 26, 1976	961.51	99.68	39.64
January 23, 1976	953.95	99.21	33.64
January 22, 1976	943.48	98.04	27.42