News stories from Monday September 23, 1974

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

The United States, asserting that the world was threatened by a depression, said that the continued high oil prices set by producing countries involved the risk of a "breakdown of world order and safety." In separate speeches by President Ford, in Detroit, and by Secretary of State Kissinger, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the administration was closer than it had ever been to demanding an end to the rising costs of oil imposed by Iran, Venezuela and the Arab producers over the last year. [New York Times] Senator Edward Kennedy, who had been considered by leaders of the Democratic party as their undoubted favorite for the presidential nomination in 1976, removed himself without qualification from the candidacy because, he said, "I simply cannot do that to my wife and children and the other members of my family." His withdrawal statement threw the Democratic presidential competition in chaos. [New York Times] Nelson Rockefeller, on the opening day of the Senate Rules Committee's hearings on his nomination as Vice President, said that he hoped the "myth or misconception" about the Rockefeller family financial empire would be "exposed and dissipated." But he disclosed figures that seemed more likely to reinforce the image he was eager to erase. [New York Times] Two-dozen leading economists met at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in an effort to reach agreement on proposals for President Ford's inflation "summit" at the end of the week, but ended the day without having reached any major consensus.At another preparatory session in Washington?more than 60 state and local government officials pleaded that the federal government not cut funds for domestic programs and recommend several alternative anti-inflation proposals. [New York Times] Former President Nixon, appearing to be fatigued, was admitted to Memorial Hospital Medical Center in Long Beach, Calif., about 50 miles south from his estate in San Clemente, for extensive tests and treatment of a flare-up of chronic phlebitis in his left leg. [New York Times] Judge Charles Ridley of the Federal District Court in Washington said that it might be "desirable" to test the "validity" of former President Nixon's pardon and the agreement on the disposition of Mr. Nixon's White House tape recordings and documents. He said the test would be "in the public interest," but delayed action on a lawsuit challenging the pardon and the tapes agreement until after a jury is chosen and sequestered in the Watergate cover-up conspiracy case. [New York Times] A leader of migrant workers on a New Jersey farm was charged by a federal grand jury with holding four Puerto Rican laborers in involuntary servitude under a rarely used post-Civil War anti-slavery law. Other charges were placed against Marcos Portalatin, the crew chief on the farm of Rosario Sorbello in Swedesboro. [New York Times] India's grave food shortage has worsened in the last two weeks and millions face hunger in several states in northern India. Economists and food experts believe that the crisis can be relieved only by substantial food imports, ranging from 7 million to 10 million tons. Hunger in some areas is breeding violence. [New York Times] Honduran officials appealed for food, helicopters and gasoline to aid hundreds of thousands of hurricane victims threatened with starvation and disease. They estimated that 5,000 people died, that there were 350,000 refugees and that nearly half the nation's crops were wiped out. Looting broke out in towns devastated by landslides and floods. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 663.72 (-7.04, -1.05%)
S&P Composite: 69.42 (-0.72, -1.03%)
Arms Index: 1.51

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	738	4.26
Declines	667	5.82
Unchanged	378	2.05
Total Volume		12.13

* 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*
September 20, 1974	670.76	70.14	16.25
September 19, 1974	674.05	70.09	17.00
September 18, 1974	651.91	67.72	11.76
September 17, 1974	648.78	67.38	13.73
September 16, 1974	639.78	66.26	18.37
September 13, 1974	627.19	65.20	16.07
September 12, 1974	641.74	66.71	16.92
September 11, 1974	654.72	68.55	11.82
September 10, 1974	658.17	69.24	11.98
September 9, 1974	662.94	69.72	11.16