News stories from Tuesday April 15, 1975

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

Secretary of State Kissinger said the embassy in Saigon had been ordered to reduce Americans remaining in South Vietnam to a minimum level. Officials said the aim was a reduction from 6,000 to 1,000 or less within two weeks. A Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposal for a $200 million contingency fund to evacuate Americans and provide humanitarian aid to South Vietnam appeared acceptable to the White House, breaking an impasse between Congress and the executive branch. [New York Times] The defense rested its case in the bribery trial of John Connally after the former Secretary of the Treasury conceded that his memory was flawed, but insisted that he had never accepted a $10,000 payoff. He maintained that he was ill-prepared when he gave some "mistaken" testimony in 1973 and 1974 investigations. [New York Times] Senate conferees yielded on major points to the House version of a farm bill tailored to increase subsidy and price-support payments while averting a presidential veto. The Senate version had been costlier and more likely to bring about a veto. Although Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz reiterated that he would recommend a veto, other Republican farm leaders said Mr. Ford had promised to give it careful consideration. [New York Times] Cambodian insurgents, closing in on Phnom Penh from most directions, reached the southern edge of the city. Heavy fighting was in progress as government forces were brought back from the outer perimeter. The American Embassy pullout was apparently the signal for the new insurgent drive. Refugees poured into the capital. The government was still vowing to fight to the last man but its defenses appeared to be falling apart. [New York Times] Communist gunners shelled the Bien Hoa fighter base 15 miles from Saigon with long-range artillery. Western officials in the capital saw this as a sign of North Vietnamese confidence in view of the risk to their heavy artillery. There were indications that they were moving three more divisions into the battle for Saigon. In an effort to keep the South Vietnamese off balance they poured shells and rockets into Tay Ninh, northwest anchor of Saigon's defense line. [New York Times] A preparatory meeting in Paris for an international energy conference this summer broke down in disagreement on the agenda and other terms. The United States, the European Economic Community and Japan insisted that it focus on energy and related economic problems, while four oil producers -- Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran and three developing countries -- Zaire, Brazil and India -- insisted on addressing the whole range of demands of developing countries for a new international economic order. [New York Times] Gunfire, rockets and bombs in the Beirut area raised the unofficial death toll to close to 100 lives in the third day of fighting between Palestinian guerrillas and the armed militia of Lebanon's Phalangist party. The survival of Lebanon's coalition government was uncertain. The Phalangist leader, Pierre Gemayel, has opposed Palestinian guerrilla raids that bring Israeli retaliation. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 815.08 (+8.13, +1.01%)
S&P Composite: 86.30 (+0.70, +0.82%)
Arms Index: 0.96

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	829	14.75
Declines	603	10.27
Unchanged	415	4.60
Total Volume		29.62

* 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*
April 14, 1975	806.95	85.60	26.80
April 11, 1975	789.50	84.18	20.16
April 10, 1975	781.29	83.77	24.99
April 9, 1975	767.99	82.84	18.12
April 8, 1975	749.22	80.99	14.32
April 7, 1975	742.88	80.35	13.86
April 4, 1975	747.26	80.88	14.17
April 3, 1975	752.19	81.51	13.92
April 2, 1975	760.56	82.43	15.60
April 1, 1975	761.58	82.64	14.48