News stories from Friday August 16, 1974

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

All of Richard Nixon's White House tape recordings and other documents were ordered held in custody by President Ford until legal issues involving the Watergate case are settled. The President acted through his new legal counsel, Philip Buchen, two days after Mr. Nixon's former Watergate lawyers declared that the tape recordings and documents were his personal property and would be returned to his control. Mr. Ford reportedly was upset when he learned that the decision to return the materials to Mr. Nixon was made without full consultation with the office of Leon Jaworski, the special Watergate prosecutor. [New York Times] The Environmental Protection Agency proposed to let states pollute their air, if they decide industrial and economic growth is more important. The Sierra Club, which had won a Supreme Court decision earlier forbidding "significant deterioration" of existing clean air, immediately promised a new court challenge. [New York Times] A recent sharp rise in export orders for grain and soybeans is expected to do more damage to the consumer's budget than the recent drought in the Midwest. Farm commodity experts believe that the volume of exports, not domestic production, had been determining the price of basic farm produce since the farm surpluses vanished in the huge sale of 19 million tons of grains and soybeans to the Soviet Union in 1972. [New York Times] Turkey's invasion forces completed the division of Cyprus into two areas and declared a cease-fire. They had used some 30,000 men supported by tanks, artillery, planes and warships to achieve what they had failed to win at the peace talks in Geneva. When the cease-fire was declared in effect at 6 P.M., the Turks had reached their objective of dividing Cyprus into separate Turkish Cypriote and Greek Cypriote areas on the anniversary of the independence of Cyprus from Britain. [New York Times] Premier Bulent Ecevit said that Turkey, having agreed to a cease-fire in Cyprus after all present military objectives had been achieved, was now prepared to resume negotiations in Geneva with Greece and Britain on the island's political future. He said that the military action of the last few days had "eliminated a number of obstacles on the road to negotiations" and that he was prepared to meet personally with Premier Constantine Caramanlis of Greece "whenever he wishes." [New York Times] Premier Constantine Caramanlis of Greece rejected a Turkish proposal for resumption of the Cyprus peace talks in Geneva and also turned down an American invitation to go to Washington to discuss the crisis with President Ford. Another Athens government statement said that the invitation had been made by Secretary of State Kissinger by telephone. In Washington, Mr. Kissinger told reporters that he would be willing, if asked, to go to Cyprus to help arrange a political settlement, but that he would "very much prefer to conduct the negotiations here in Washington." [New York Times] Ethiopia's armed forces stripped 82-year-old Emperor Haile Selassie of some of his powers as tanks, armored cars and troop carriers paraded through Addis Ababa, the capital, with a squadron of jet fighters overhead. The armed forces committee announced in a radio broadcast that it had abolished the Emperor's crown council, court of justice, and military committee. There was no mention of a military takeover, but all indications were that the army was about to seize full power. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 731.54 (-6.34, -0.86%)
S&P Composite: 75.67 (-0.63, -0.83%)
Arms Index: 1.46

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	494	2.67
Declines	801	6.32
Unchanged	423	1.53
Total Volume		10.52

* 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*
August 15, 1974	737.88	76.30	11.13
August 14, 1974	740.54	76.73	11.75
August 13, 1974	756.41	78.49	10.14
August 12, 1974	767.29	79.75	7.78
August 9, 1974	777.30	80.86	10.16
August 8, 1974	784.89	81.57	16.06
August 7, 1974	797.56	82.65	13.38
August 6, 1974	773.78	80.52	15.77
August 5, 1974	760.40	79.29	11.23
August 2, 1974	752.58	78.59	10.11