News stories from Friday August 23, 1974

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

Dry weather in the Middle West and consequently smaller crops means that food prices will continue to rise in the second half of this year, instead of leveling off as had been expected, the Agriculture Department predicted. It now projects an increase of 3 to 4 percent in average consumer food prices from the beginning of July to the end of December, but the increase would be only half the amount in the first six months of the year. [New York Times] Roy Ash, one of President Ford's economic advisers, hinted broadly that the government would not be able to balance the budget in the next year without reducing future benefits in some social programs legislated long ago. Mr. Ash, director of the Office of Management and Budget, spoke at a business luncheon in New York. [New York Times] Pan American World Airways, declaring that it would have to increase borrowings by October to pay its bills, formally appealed to the government for an emergency $10 million-a-month subsidy "to stave off the imminent financial crises" resulting from increasing fuel prices and declining passenger travel. It asked for payments retroactive to April 3. [New York Times] Philip Buchen, President Ford's legal counsel, agreed to permit aides of former President Nixon, who have been indicted in the Watergate cover-up case, to examine personal files that had been sequestered by the Nixon administration. Soon after the decision was announced, H.R. Haldeman, who was Mr. Nixon's White House chief of staff, entered a guarded room in the Executive Office Building next to the White House to examine his files. [New York Times] Vice President-designate Nelson Rockefeller answered many questions at a news conference at his summer home in Seal Harbor, Me. One of the questions was how he felt about "amnesty" for former President Nixon. He replied that he agreed with Senator Hugh Scott that "he's been hung, and it doesn't seem to me that, in addition, he should be drawn and quartered," On the subject of the financial disclosures he must make to Congress, he said that he had been assured by the congressional committee to which he is making available detailed information that it will release none of it unless he agrees. [New York Times] George Steinbrenner, the first corporate executive to be charged with a felony in the special Watergate prosecutor's investigation of campaign financing, pleaded guilty to two federal charges arising from the illegal expenditure of thousands of dollars in company funds for Democratic and Republican political campaigns. He is chairman of the American Shipbuilding Company and a major owner of the New York Yankees. In addition, American Shipbuilding pleaded guilty to violations of the campaign contribution laws. [New York Times] United States marshals arrested and jailed two defense attorneys and used disabling chemical Mace to remove several spectators from the federal courtroom at the 7½-month-old Wounded Knee trial in St. Paul. Tension in the long trial exploded as the defense cross-examined a government witness. [New York Times] At the request of Manhattan District Attorney Richard Kuh, the New York state Supreme Court dismissed the controversial case against William Maynard, who spent six and a half years in prison fighting charges that he shot a Marine sergeant to death in Greenwich Village in 1967. [New York Times] The Turkish government is organizing a major relief and development program for the Turkish-occupied sector of Cyprus whose economic life has been seriously disrupted by the war. The Turkish Cypriote minority was economically dependent on the more prosperous Greek Cypriote sector, where many Turkish Cypriote workers were employed, largely as day laborers, and where Turkish Cypriote farmers sold much of their produce and livestock. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 686.80 (-17.83, -2.53%)
S&P Composite: 71.55 (-1.25, -1.72%)
Arms Index: 1.54

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	351	2.16
Declines	1,012	9.59
Unchanged	385	1.83
Total Volume		13.58

* 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*
August 22, 1974	704.63	72.80	15.69
August 21, 1974	711.59	73.51	11.65
August 20, 1974	726.95	74.95	13.82
August 19, 1974	721.84	74.57	11.67
August 16, 1974	731.54	75.67	10.51
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