News stories from Tuesday January 14, 1975

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

President Ford's new economic program includes a $16.5 billion reduction in individual tax rates in 1975, in addition to the $12 billion rebate of 1974 taxes announced Monday night, the White House disclosed. The rate reductions would heavily favor those in the lowest tax brackets, unlike the rebate, which would give the same percentage tax reduction to all with incomes under $40,000. [New York Times] The White House said President Ford would ask Congress today to put a tax of $2 a barrel on all domestic crude oil and a comparable levy on all natural gas. As a result, prices of all petroleum products would go up, but by varying amounts. Gasoline prices might climb by 10 to 15 cents a gallon. There had been speculation earlier that the proposed tax on domestic oil would be $3 a barrel. [New York Times] Business and financial leaders, as well as economists and labor leaders, gave the President's economic program a lukewarm reception. Some applauded -- especially those in the auto industry -- but others saw the pump-priming as inflationary and said they were worried about large federal deficits. Some utility and petrochemical industry officials reacted harshly to the energy program, as did real estate owners and developers. [New York Times] The 94th Congress convened with Mike Mansfield of Montana in his 15th year as Senate Democratic leader and Carl Albert of Oklahoma re-elected Speaker of the House. Both urged cooperation with the Republican minority in each house. [New York Times] In a secret 23-14 vote, apparently along ideological lines, Senate Republicans rejected the bid of Jacob Javits, a New York liberal, to head the Senate Republican Conference. Carl Curtis, a Nebraska conservative, was the winner. [New York Times] Secretary of State Kissinger announced that the Soviet Union and the United States had nullified their 1972 trade agreement. He said at a news conference that the Soviet government informed the United States last Friday that it could not accept a trading relationship based on the recently passed trade reform act. This was the legislation linking nondiscriminatory trade status to liberalizing of the emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union. [New York Times] Defense Secretary James Schlesinger said in Washington that the Soviet Union had begun deploying two new intercontinental missiles presumably armed with multiple warheads -- a step that had been expected and caused no immediate concern. At the same time, the White House announced that negotiations for a treaty to limit strategic weapons would begin in Geneva on Jan. 31. [New York Times] The State Department said that the United States was free to breach the Vietnam cease-fire agreements because the North Vietnamese had violated them. In response to requests for confirmation that the United States had resumed reconnaissance flights over North Vietnam, the department spokesman said that international law permitted one party to breach an accord if the other side had already done so. Defense Secretary Schlesinger virtually acknowledged the flights had been resumed. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 648.70 (-5.48, -0.84%)
S&P Composite: 71.68 (-0.63, -0.87%)
Arms Index: 1.58

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	609	4.69
Declines	791	9.64
Unchanged	399	2.28
Total Volume		16.61

* 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*
January 13, 1975	654.18	72.31	19.78
January 10, 1975	658.79	72.61	25.89
January 9, 1975	645.26	71.17	16.34
January 8, 1975	635.40	70.04	15.60
January 7, 1975	641.19	71.02	14.33
January 6, 1975	637.20	71.07	17.55
January 3, 1975	634.54	70.71	15.27
January 2, 1975	632.04	70.23	14.80
December 31, 1974	616.24	68.56	20.97
December 30, 1974	603.25	67.16	18.52