News stories from Monday December 30, 1974

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

The jury in the Watergate cover-up trial -- nine women and three men -- began deliberations in the case against five former White House and Nixon campaign aides. The jurors deliberated for nearly four hours in the afternoon and then recessed until tomorrow. There were signs that the verdict will not be a quick one. [New York Times] E. Howard Hunt, a Watergate burglar who pleaded guilty, told the Senate Watergate Committee in December, 1973, in still unpublished testimony, that he served as the first chief of clandestine operations for the Central Intelligence Agency's domestic operations division. He said that his domestic activities included the secret financing of a Washington news agency as well as the underwriting of the well-known Fodor's travel guides. He gave other details of his C.I.A. activities today in an interview with the New York Times. [New York Times] President Ford pocket-vetoed two highly controversial bills. One would have required that 20 percent of the oil imported into the United States be carried on American tankers. The other would have put stringent new regulations on strip mining and coal. He explained why he had withheld his approval. [New York Times] Representative Wilbur Mills, the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, attributed his recent erratic behavior, mainly his well-publicized association with a strip-tease dancer, to acute alcoholism, as he announced that he would retain his seat in Congress. However, he pledged total abstinence. [New York Times] Speculative buying in gold continued on the European bullion markets, pushing up its price in anticipation of the entry of American buyers in the market tomorrow. The price at the morning fixing in London was a record $197.50, but demand slackened and the price fell to $191.50 at the close. [New York Times] It was officially announced in Moscow that Leonid Brezhnev had indefinitely postponed his visit to Egypt, Syria and Iraq, which he was to begin in about two weeks. No explanation was given. The indefinite postponement, tantamount in diplomatic terms to cancellation, was regarded as a setback in the Kremlin's efforts to enhance its position in the Middle East. However, this was challenged by a Soviet-Egyptian statement issued in Moscow at the end of a three-day visit by high Egyptian officials that stressed the "firm friendship" between the two countries. [New York Times] The postponement of Mr. Brezhnev's trip was a welcome surprise to administration officials in Washington who had expected that the visit might have led to a resurgence of Soviet influence in Egypt at American expense. The State Department refused to comment on the postponement but officials there assumed that it was a setback to Moscow and opened the way to a new Egyptian-Israeli negotiation through Secretary of State Kissinger. [New York Times] According to official estimates, the earthquake that struck northern Pakistan over the weekend killed 4,700 persons and injured 15,000 in nine towns. The toll is expected to rise as runners make contact with regions farther north that have been cut off since the quake struck Saturday night. It continued intermittently. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 603.25 (+1.09, +0.18%)
S&P Composite: 67.16 (+0.02, +0.03%)
Arms Index: 0.97

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	575	5.56
Declines	846	7.91
Unchanged	481	5.05
Total Volume		18.52

* 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*
December 27, 1974	602.16	67.14	13.06
December 26, 1974	604.74	67.44	11.81
December 24, 1974	598.40	66.88	9.54
December 23, 1974	589.64	65.96	18.04
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