News stories from Monday March 3, 1975

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

The basis of a possible energy compromise between the administration and Congress began to take shape at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing. Witnesses for the administration indicated that the White House could accept two proposals offered over the weekend by the committee Democrats -- a substantial but gradual increase in the federal gasoline tax and a federal excise tax on new cars that use relatively large amounts of gasoline. President Ford's decision to put off until today an announcement deferring part of his fee on crude oil imports disappointed both Republicans and Democrats, but they seemed confident that he would take that first step toward compromise. [New York Times] The Supreme Court ruled that newspapers and radio and television stations cannot be subjected either to criminal prosecution or civil damage suits for disseminating accurate information available from public law enforcement records. Voting 8 to 1, the Court struck down a Georgia law that made it a misdemeanor to print or broadcast the name of a rape victim, and the majority denied the right of the victim or her parents to start an action for invasion of privacy because the victim's name had been made public. [New York Times] Suggestions from members of a congressional fact-finding mission that he make a new, major diplomatic effort to end the wars in South Vietnam and Cambodia got an unenthusiastic response from Secretary of State Kissinger. A State Department official said that Mr. Kissinger appreciated the desire that the conflicts be settled diplomatically, but that he felt there was little sense in trying when the situation, especially in Cambodia, was weighted so heavily in favor of the Communist-backed forces. [New York Times] The West German government capitulated to the demands of the kidnappers of Peter Lorenz, the leader of West Berlin's Christian Democratic party, and flew five radicals from prison to the Middle East, where they landed in Aden in southern Yemen. Meanwhile, Mr. Lorenz was still a hostage. [New York Times] European consumers are starting to pay less for gasoline, heating oil and other petroleum products, reflecting the growing world surplus of oil and the increase in the value of their currencies against the dollar. The sharpest price cuts have taken place in Switzerland. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 753.13 (+14.08, +1.91%)
S&P Composite: 83.03 (+1.44, +1.76%)
Arms Index: 0.54

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,121	19.19
Declines	350	3.25
Unchanged	343	1.65
Total Volume		24.09

* 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 28, 1975	739.05	81.59	17.56
February 27, 1975	731.15	80.77	16.43
February 26, 1975	728.10	80.37	18.79
February 25, 1975	719.18	79.53	20.91
February 24, 1975	736.94	81.44	19.15
February 21, 1975	749.77	82.62	24.44
February 20, 1975	745.38	82.21	22.26
February 19, 1975	736.39	81.44	22.19
February 18, 1975	731.30	80.93	23.99
February 14, 1975	734.20	81.50	23.29