News stories from Wednesday February 19, 1975

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

The Senate voted to suspend for 90 days President Ford's power to increase fees on imported oil by a 66 to 28 margin. Although this would be ample to override the promised Ford veto, Republicans in the Senate said the President was ready to compromise slightly to pick up the votes to sustain it. The President was said to be willing to shift some of the increased cost to gasoline. [New York Times] A federal grand jury in Washington indicted the lawyer who prepared former President Richard Nixon's tax returns and the appraiser who valued the pre-presidential papers claimed for tax deduction. The jury said that Frank DeMarco, a Los Angeles lawyer, and Ralph Newman, a Chicago appraiser, prepared false documents backdating the gift of the papers to qualify for a deduction after the law permitting it had expired. [New York Times] The Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 that the Internal Revenue Service may compel banks to provide records about a much larger group of depositors while investigating suspected tax cheats. The dissenters said this would let the I.R.S. take "a shot in the dark" by unwarranted examination. [New York Times] The commissioners of baseball and football told the Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling that betting on their games was a reality, but making it legal would be a disaster. Bowie Kuhn, for baseball, and Pete Rozelle, for football, said the integrity of the professional game must be maintained and warned spectators would suspect a fix if a player muffed an easy play. [New York Times] The House of Representatives voted $347 million in grants and loans to help bail out the Penn Central and other bankrupt railroads. The 270 to 137 vote followed bitter debate in which opponents called it throwing good money after bad. A joint conference will be needed to resolve the difference with the Senate, which voted $275 million three weeks ago for the railroads. [New York Times] The Defense Department for the first time publicly listed its foreign technical assistance and training contracts, reporting that foreign military personnel were being trained in 34 countries under contracts worth $727 million. The two largest programs are with Iran ($314 million) and Saudi Arabia ($362 million). The Saudi program includes the $77 million contract with the Vinnell Corporation to train four battalions of the Saudi Arabian National Guard. [New York Times] Returning to Washington from the Middle East and Europe, Secretary of State Kissinger reported "some progress" toward a framework to negotiate an Egyptian-Israeli accord. There were indications of concern at Syria's position, with Soviet support, against a step-by-step settlement. He said relations with the Soviet Union were central to American foreign policy and said the Soviet Union had to take a part in the final settlement in the Middle East. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 736.39 (+5.09, +0.70%)
S&P Composite: 81.44 (+0.51, +0.63%)
Arms Index: 0.72

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	687	11.44
Declines	711	8.47
Unchanged	410	2.28
Total Volume		22.19

* 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*
February 18, 1975	731.30	80.93	23.99
February 14, 1975	734.20	81.50	23.29
February 13, 1975	726.92	81.01	35.16
February 12, 1975	715.03	79.92	19.79
February 11, 1975	707.50	78.58	16.47
February 10, 1975	708.39	78.36	16.12
February 7, 1975	711.91	78.63	20.06
February 6, 1975	714.17	78.56	32.02
February 5, 1975	717.85	78.95	25.83
February 4, 1975	708.07	77.51	25.04