News stories from Monday July 7, 1975

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

President Ford, in a message to Congress, outlined a new federal highway program that would give states and localities greater flexibility in setting transportation priorities and make basic changes in the highway assistance programs. But the President's program, which would sharply reduce the federal Highway Trust Fund's revenues from federal gasoline taxes, a source of highway construction funds, appeared headed for considerable opposition in Congress. [New York Times] Intelligence sources said that members of Congress, two Vice Presidents and others had flown chartered flights on a Washington-based airline, unaware that the line was owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency. Among those who used the airline, the sources said, were Hubert Humphrey, Robert F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, who apparently paid full charter rates. With political figures as passengers, one source said, "it meant that the C.I.A. had an unusual entree into the personal and campaign travel of some of the most important political figures in the country. It could learn where they flew, with whom they traveled and, if the agency wanted to, it could record or get an employee to listen to what was said." [New York Times] Dr. James H. Sammons, executive vice president of the American Medical Association, wrote a letter to state and county officials of the association, minimizing questions that had been raised in the association's magazine about the safety of a widely used and controversial diabetic drug. He then permitted the 1,100 salesmen of the largest manufacturer of the drug to use his letter in their sales talks despite a warning that such use violated A.M.A policy. Details about the letter's distribution became known as the Food and Drug Administration published a proposed rule requiring a new label for the drug. [New York Times] Under an experiment proposed by the Civil Aeronautics Board, airlines would be permitted to compete with one another on selected routes without the agency's permission, and they would also have considerable freedom to raise or lower fares. The agency said it hoped the experiment could start early next year. [New York Times] Argentine workers went ahead with a two-day general strike despite the government's last-minute effort to prevent it by announcing the resignation of the entire cabinet Sunday night. The resignations -- particularly that of the Social Welfare Minister, Jose Lopez Rega -- had been one of the demands of labor unions, which are also asking the government to permit the carrying out of wage agreements that would provide increases ranging from 80 percent to 130 percent. A government statement said the eight cabinet ministers would remain in office until President Isabel Martinez de Peron could select replacements. [New York Times] The takeover of Laos by the Communist-led Pathet Lao and thus the complete Communist domination of Indochina is accepted as an accomplished fact by most Laotians and foreign observers. It is also apparent that the takeover has moved into a new phase. The Pathet Lao leadership, having removed the top officials of the Vientiane government, appears to be ousting the officials who served the Pathet Lao when it was part of a coalition government. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 861.08 (-10.71, -1.23%)
S&P Composite: 93.54 (-0.82, -0.87%)
Arms Index: 1.25

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	508	4.07
Declines	910	9.14
Unchanged	433	2.63
Total Volume		15.84

* 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 3, 1975	871.79	94.36	19.00
July 2, 1975	870.38	94.18	18.53
July 1, 1975	877.42	94.85	20.39
June 30, 1975	878.99	95.19	19.43
June 27, 1975	873.12	94.81	18.82
June 26, 1975	874.14	94.81	24.56
June 25, 1975	872.73	94.62	21.61
June 24, 1975	869.06	94.19	26.62
June 23, 1975	864.83	93.62	20.72
June 20, 1975	855.44	92.61	25.26