News stories from Tuesday July 9, 1974

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

The House Judiciary Committee published eight tapes of President Nixon's Watergate conversations that differ markedly from the White House version. The committee made no judgment about the differences, but they seemed likely to damage his case in the impeachment inquiry. [New York Times] President Nixon's chief defense lawyer, James St. Clair, told reporters that he did not know whether the President would obey a Supreme Court order to turn over subpoenaed White House tapes. Making it clear that the option of defying the Court was still open, he said the President's grounds would be "the public interest." To comply, he said, it would take perhaps two months to process the tapes. [New York Times] President Nixon will meet Thursday with a group of leading businessmen and economists on ways to curb inflation. Kenneth Rush, his counselor for economic policy, said it would be the start of an effort at "national dialogue" on the subject and that he hoped that labor leaders would be invited to later meetings. [New York Times] Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969, died at the age of 83 in Washington. [New York Times] A marine scientist who reported last December that the New York City metropolitan area's sewage sludge dumped in the Atlantic Ocean was within half a mile of Long Island's Atlantic Beach now finds it as close as a quarter of a mile. The scientist, Dr. William Harris, predicted the beach would be unusable because of contamination by 1976. [New York Times] The United States sold more than $8.5 billion in arms in the fiscal year 1973-74, almost double the sales of 1972-73, according to official Pentagon estimates. This surge, many officials say, has been at least as much for economic reasons as to meet defense and diplomatic requirements. The bulk of the sales has been to the Middle East and the Persian Gulf area. [New York Times] A decision by the Netherlands to cut 20,000 men from its armed forces drew a swift rebuke from the council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In a communique issued in Brussels, the council said that such a step would seriously weaken NATO defenses. Senior NATO officials said the Netherlands action would increase pressure for similar reductions in United States commitments in Europe and would set an example for defense cuts in Britain, Italy and elsewhere. [New York Times] International airlines tentatively agreed to increase fares between the United States and Europe by 7 to 10 percent on Nov. 1. This is in addition to four increases either introduced or decided on earlier this year. The Fort Lauderdale meeting also agreed on discounts for purchases made 60 days before takeoff. Civil Aviation Board approval is expected to be received. [New York Times] Italy's three major trade-union groups began their campaign against austerity taxes, announced Saturday, with four-hour strikes and protest rallies in the northwest, Tuscany, and Sicily. Similar actions are mapped for all parts of Italy in the next few days. Spokesmen are demanding equal sacrifice by well-to-do Italians. [New York Times] Portugal's first effort at civilian government since the revolution in April collapsed when Premier Adelina da Palma Carlos and four of his middle-of-the-road ministers resigned. The conflict with Communists, Socialists and other leftists in the cabinet spilled over into the streets where for the first time the armed forces prevented an extreme left-wing demonstration. The government's downfall was a setback for efforts to organize a democratic system. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 772.29 (+1.72, +0.22%)
S&P Composite: 81.48 (+0.39, +0.48%)
Arms Index: 0.76

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	656	6.92
Declines	748	6.03
Unchanged	392	2.63
Total Volume		15.58

* 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*
July 8, 1974	770.57	81.09	15.51
July 5, 1974	791.77	83.66	7.40
July 3, 1974	792.87	84.25	13.43
July 2, 1974	790.68	84.30	13.46
July 1, 1974	806.24	86.02	10.27
June 28, 1974	802.41	86.00	12.01
June 27, 1974	803.66	86.31	12.65
June 26, 1974	816.96	87.61	11.41
June 25, 1974	828.85	88.98	11.92
June 24, 1974	816.33	87.69	9.95