News stories from Monday August 26, 1974

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

Farm crops may not be so bountiful this fall as in past years, but "there is absolutely no basis for panic" about the available food supply in the United States this year or in 1975, Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz told a news conference that was held to allay that fear. Mr. Butz and his aides said: food prices continue to rise; reduced foreign demand will ease the impact of the recent drought on supplies of corn and other livestock feed grains; this country will have plenty of beef in the coming year despite the smaller harvests of feed grains, and there will be less pork and chicken. [New York Times] President Ford's "summit conference" on inflation will be held in Washington on Sept. 27 and 28 and will be preceded by a series of preliminary meetings between administration officials and state and local government officials and representatives of individual sectors of the economy. The White House press secretary said the President had set five goals for the summit. Among these are clarification of the nation's economic condition and identification of the causes of inflation. [New York Times] Charles Lindbergh, whose nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927 in the monoplane "Spirit of St. Louis" made history -- he was the first man to fly the Atlantic solo -- died at his vacation home in Hawaii at the age of 72. He had cancer of the lymphatic system, and when it became apparent that death was imminent, he was flown from New York to his home on the island of Kipahulu. He died at 7:15 A.M. Hawaii time and was buried three hours later in a cemetery on Kipahulu. [New York Times] The General Motors Corporation disclosed that it was raising prices of some of its 1975 models hundreds of dollars more than the average $426 increase it announced last week for 1975 cars and trucks. The company is also adding some new, more expensive models to its automobiles, a familiar pricing device in the industry. It released a detailed list of prices for the Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Cadillac models. [New York Times] The oil-hungry United States paid more for imported goods in July than in any other month on record, sending the nation into its third-deepest monthly trade deficit ever. The Commerce Department said the dollar value of imports increased for the eighth straight month, totaling just over $9 billion last month. [New York Times] Secretary General Waldheim of the United Nations and the leaders of the Greek Cypriote and Turkish Cypriote administrations of Cyprus conferred in Nicosia. They agreed that their discussions had made some progress toward an eventual solution of the Cyprus crisis. President Glafkos Clerides, the Greek Cypriote leader, and Rauf Denktash, head of the Turkish Cypriote administration, met for the first time since the Geneva conference on the Cyprus problem collapsed two weeks ago. [New York Times] Portugal signed an agreement, effective Sept. 10, granting independence to Portuguese Guinea, ending 500 years of dominance over the West African territory. President Antonio di Spinola pledged to remove all troops by Oct. 31. A troop airlift has already begun. Thus Portugal began the dissolution of her African empire. However, difficult negotiations are ahead with nationalists of Angola and Mozambique. [New York Times] The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 15 has been launched into orbit with two men aboard, Tass, the Soviet press agency, reported. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 688.13 (+1.33, +0.19%)
S&P Composite: 72.16 (+0.61, +0.85%)
Arms Index: 0.56

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	627	7.41
Declines	794	5.26
Unchanged	388	1.96
Total Volume		14.63

* 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 23, 1974	686.80	71.55	13.59
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