News stories from Monday December 23, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Ford ordered William Colby, the director of Central Intelligence, to report "within a matter of days" on published allegations of C.I.A. spying on American citizens. Ron Nessen, the White House press secretary, said that the President had ordered Mr. Colby to submit his report through the National Security Council, headed by Secretary of State Kissinger. The chairmen of three major congressional committees announced that they would begin extensive hearings into the C.I.A. soon after Congress convenes next month. [New York Times]
- President Ford signed legislation that is intended to strengthen the national antitrust laws and give the government more authority to act against companies with inflationary policies. He also vetoed two bills that he said were in excess of his budget and thus inflationary. [New York Times]
- The United States Steel Corporation unexpectedly announced that it was reducing by about 20 percent price increases that it announced a week ago. The increases had been challenged by the Ford administration. The price cut came soon after two other major steel makers raised prices on a wide variety of steel products to the levels previously announced by U.S. Steel. The partial rollback was not regarded as a great victory for the administration because U.S. Steel has already arranged a new series of substantially higher prices on its products. [New York Times]
- The Supreme Court made a ruling in favor of a Pennsylvania electric company that could have wide impact on the many people all over the country who may have their telephone, electric power and gas service cut off without warning. The Court, in a 6 to 3 decision, said that private utility companies had no constitutional obligation to give customers notice or a hearing before cutting off service. It said the Pennsylvania company was not closely enough related to the state government to enable consumers to invoke due process guarantees that protect them against abrupt and arbitrary action by public agencies. [New York Times]
- Lawyers for both John Mitchell and John Ehrlichman suggested to the jury in the final arguments at the Watergate cover-up trial that former President Richard Nixon had been the "maestro" and the "orchestra leader" of the Watergate cover-up. Federal Judge John Sirica brushed aside these suggestions in an argument out of the jury's presence. He said that if the defendants had committed the crimes they were accused of, then whether or not they had done so at Mr. Nixon's orders was irrelevant. He also said that the pardoning of Mr. Nixon was irrelevant to the trial. [New York Times]
- The foreign leaders who have met with President Ford in recent months say they have been impressed with his honesty, his personal warmth and his grasp of issues. A survey by correspondents of the New York Times in West Germany, Canada, Israel, Japan, the Soviet Union and France shows that the impression Mr. Ford left with the leaders of these countries is generally more favorable than the one reflected in the American press and publications in Europe. [New York Times]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 589.64 (-8.84, -1.48%)
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* |
| December 20, 1974 | 598.48 | 66.91 | 15.84 |
| December 19, 1974 | 604.43 | 67.75 | 15.90 |
| December 18, 1974 | 603.49 | 67.90 | 18.05 |
| December 17, 1974 | 597.54 | 67.58 | 16.88 |
| December 16, 1974 | 586.83 | 66.46 | 15.37 |
| December 13, 1974 | 592.77 | 67.07 | 14.00 |
| December 12, 1974 | 596.37 | 67.45 | 15.39 |
| December 11, 1974 | 595.35 | 67.67 | 15.70 |
| December 10, 1974 | 593.87 | 67.28 | 15.69 |
| December 9, 1974 | 579.94 | 65.60 | 14.66 |