News stories from Wednesday April 3, 1974

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

President Nixon announced that he would pay $432,787.13 in back taxes plus interest after congressional investigators and the Internal Revenue Service concluded that the President had underpaid his taxes by more than $400,000 in his first four years in the White House. The President's announcement came shortly after a joint congressional committee issued a staff report finding that the President had failed to report five separate categories of taxable income and had claimed six different categories of unwarranted deductions. [New York Times] While the White House statement said that Mr. Nixon would pay the full amount of back taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service, it said he could have legitimately contested the findings. Though the White House said the I.R.S had concluded that the President had not committed fraud in underpaying his taxes, and congressional investigators did not address the question, the staff of the House Judiciary Committee began a study of the investigators' report to determine whether the President's tax matters provide grounds for impeachment. [New York Times] Three witnesses gave testimony in a civil lawsuit supporting a contention that a suitcase containing a $50,000 cash campaign donation from Howard Hughes had been placed at the feet of Hubert Humphrey in 1968, when Senator Humphrey was Vice President. Senator Humphrey has denied under oath that he ever received the money, which witnesses said was placed in his limousine as he left a Los Angeles hotel after a fundraising dinner in July, 1968. [New York Times] The Republican Lieutenant Governor of California, Ed Reinecke, was indicted by a Watergate grand jury on charges of lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the timing of conversations he had with then Attorney General John Mitchell in 1971 concerning the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation's offer to help underwrite the 1972 Republican National Convention. The charges stem from an investigation into possible political influence in the settlement of three antitrust suits against I.T.T. [New York Times] In a tape-recorded message delivered to a Berkeley, Calif. radio station, Patricia Hearst declared that she had decided to join the forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The development came a day after the S.L.A. said it was planning to release Miss Hearst, who the police say was kidnapped on Feb. 4. [New York Times] Scores of persons were killed as a wave of tornadoes struck the South and Middle West, leaving a hopscotch pattern of devastation from Georgia to Illinois. In Xenia, Ohio, a police official said that about half of that city of 25,000 had been destroyed by a large twister. [New York Times] Alain Poher, the centrist president of the French Senate, was officially proclaimed the Acting President of France as the death of President Pompidou left an atmosphere of grave uncertainty and political confusion. Mr. Poher will serve until a new president is elected -- no later than May 5. Among the leading prospective candidates are a former Premier, the Finance Minister, the president of the National Assembly and the head of the Socialist party. [New York Times] Administration officials said that President Nixon plans to fly to Paris for a Saturday service in memory of President Pompidou, and that he might extend his stay to meet with leading contenders for the French presidency, perhaps with the idea of easing recent diplomatic strains. [New York Times] The initial findings of an Israeli commission investigating the October war were attacked from both the left and right in Israel as excessively severe on the military command, and too lenient on the political leadership of the country. [New York Times] After two days adrift in the Atlantic, 1,648 cruise passengers abandoned the crippled Queen Elizabeth 2 and were ferried by a bobbing flotilla of launches to the Norwegian cruise ship Sea Venture. Then, their ordeal at sea behind them, the passengers steamed toward Bermuda for air connections to New York. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 858.03 (+11.42, +1.35%)
S&P Composite: 94.33 (+0.98, +1.05%)
Arms Index: 0.77

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	779	6.38
Declines	576	3.63
Unchanged	404	1.49
Total Volume		11.50

* 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*
April 2, 1974	846.61	93.35	12.01
April 1, 1974	843.48	93.25	11.47
March 29, 1974	846.68	93.98	12.15
March 28, 1974	854.35	94.82	14.94
March 27, 1974	871.17	96.59	11.69
March 26, 1974	883.68	97.95	11.84
March 25, 1974	881.02	97.64	10.54
March 22, 1974	878.13	97.27	11.93
March 21, 1974	875.47	97.34	12.95
March 20, 1974	872.34	97.57	12.96