News stories from Wednesday April 23, 1975

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

The Senate, by a vote of 75 to 17, approved legislation that would give the President limited authority to use American troops to protect the evacuation of Americans and South Vietnamese from Saigon. Like a separate measure before the House of Representatives, it also authorizes emergency humanitarian aid for South Vietnam. But there was overwhelming opposition to any additional military aid to the Saigon government, which had also been requested by President Ford. [New York Times] Saigon's leaders were apparently attempting to form a new government acceptable to the Viet Cong as a negotiating agent. Conversations were said to center on Gen. Duong Van Minh, who led the coup that overthrew President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. But neither the Viet Cong nor the North Vietnamese have been willing to offer a list of appropriate names for such a government. Fighting around Saigon was minimal. [New York Times] Panic is clearly visible in Saigon as thousands of Vietnamese try to flee their country. A young American-trained economist offered an American $10,000 to marry his wife, three months pregnant, and take her to the United States. Others are buying up sleeping pills and tranquilizers for suicide if the worst should come. [New York Times] The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong have told Washington through intermediaries that they do not wish to humiliate the United States in the coming days, but beyond that they do not even say whether they are prepared to negotiate. Authoritative administration officials say the United States is asking the Communists for a safe evacuation for American citizens, for their dependents and for some South Vietnamese. [New York Times] President Ford said in a speech to the Tulane University student body in New Orleans that the war in Indochina was "finished -- as far as America is concerned" and that the nation should develop an agenda for the future. He asked his audience to join in this process after a decade of discord. [New York Times] The House Ways and Means Committee voted to give Congress until April, 1977, to cancel or modify the 20 cent increase in the federal gasoline tax that is a key element in the energy conservation bill. The present draft would apply the tax on Jan. 15, 1977, if 1976 consumption exceeds the 1970 record high. The committee action reflected the basic ambivalence of many in Congress on taxing gasoline more heavily to discourage consumption. [New York Times] The Los Alamos scientific laboratory has developed a technique that scientists believe will make it much simpler and cheaper to produce nuclear weapons and commercial nuclear power. It is also expected to complicate limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. The announcement came after disclosure that Soviet scientists had achieved the same technique. [New York Times] Defense Secretary James Schlesinger assured the Israeli Ambassador, Simcha Dinitz, that the Ford administration's current reassessment of its Middle East policies will not diminish American support for Israel's security. This appeared to ease Israeli concern at the current freeze of new military aid. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 802.49 (-11.65, -1.43%)
S&P Composite: 86.12 (-0.97, -1.11%)
Arms Index: 1.39

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	396	3.83
Declines	1,064	14.28
Unchanged	359	1.93
Total Volume		20.04

* 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 22, 1975	814.14	87.09	26.12
April 21, 1975	815.86	87.23	23.96
April 18, 1975	808.43	86.30	22.61
April 17, 1975	819.46	87.25	32.65
April 16, 1975	815.71	86.60	22.97
April 15, 1975	815.08	86.30	29.62
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