News stories from Wednesday January 22, 1975

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

President Ford rejected a request from Al Ullman, new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, that he postpone his plan to impose an additional $1-a-barrel fee on imported oil starting Feb. 1. He thus set the stage for an immediate confrontation over his program to force reduced use of petroleum products by making them more expensive. [New York Times] Amplifying President Ford's news conference promise to veto any legislation requiring gasoline rationing, his spokesman said he was prepared to veto mandatory rationing for any petroleum product. [New York Times] The Treasury estimated it would have to borrow a record $28 billion in the first half of 1975 to finance the budget deficit. The figure was based on President Ford's program and could rise or fall with congressional action. Some officials have expressed fear that borrowing would start interest rates up again, creating a new setback for the homebuilding industry. [New York Times] The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that public school pupils cannot be suspended without notice of the charges, an explanation of evidence against them and a chance to give their side of the story. Associate Justice Byron White said for the majority that young people do not shed their rights at the schoolhouse door, while Lewis Powell, dissenting, called injury from short suspensions too insubstantial to justify court action. [New York Times] House Democrats swept three Southern committee chairmen from their posts in the biggest setback to the seniority system in Congress in more than 50 years. Henry Reuss of Wisconsin replaced Wright Patman of Texas as head of the Banking and Currency Committee; Thomas Foley of Washington succeeded W. R. Poage of Texas at Agriculture; and Melvin Price of Illinois took over from Edward Hebert of Louisiana on the Armed Services Committee. Wayne Hays of Ohio, chairman of the House Administration Committee, withstood a challenge from Frank Thompson of New Jersey after lively campaigning. [New York Times] A massive study sponsored by the National Heart and Lung Institute has found that the drugs clofibrate and niacin, widely used to protect persons who have survived a heart attack from having a second one, are useless. The two drugs lower the concentration of cholesterol and other fatty substances in the blood. The study did not answer the related question of the drugs' effect on persons with high cholesterol who have had no heart attacks. [New York Times] The Defense Department notified Congress that it intends to sell Turkey $229 million in arms to modernize her armored forces. Members of Congress opposing military aid to Turkey immediately raised questions whether this represented an attempt to thwart a congressional mandate cutting off arms sales to Turkey on Feb. 5. [New York Times] President Anwar Sadat of Egypt criticized what he called the Soviet Union's "unfriendly attitude" toward Egypt in an interview with a French newspaper. His main complaint was that Moscow was refusing arms supplies and opposing even a limited military action against Israel. By contrast, he said, Moscow has given Syria what it has refused to Egypt. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 652.61 (+10.71, +1.67%)
S&P Composite: 71.74 (+1.04, +1.47%)
Arms Index: 0.57

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	800	9.52
Declines	550	3.71
Unchanged	417	2.10
Total Volume		15.33

* 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 21, 1975	641.90	70.70	14.78
January 20, 1975	647.45	71.08	13.45
January 17, 1975	644.63	70.96	14.25
January 16, 1975	655.74	72.05	17.11
January 15, 1975	653.39	72.14	16.58
January 14, 1975	648.70	71.68	16.61
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