News stories from Monday May 19, 1975

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

Questions about casualty reports and other matters related to the rescue of the freighter Mayaguez persisted despite new explanations from the White House and the Pentagon. The Pentagon again revised its count of casualties, except for the number of dead and missing, in the marine assault to rescue the ship and its crew. The White House press secretary said President Ford had been ''puzzled" and "frustrated" by his inability to obtain quick and accurate information about casualties. The spokesman insisted there was not "any intention to hide bad news." [New York Times] The gravest crisis in relations between Thailand and the United States since World War II appeared to have been virtually resolved as a result of a highly conciliatory American note to the Thai government regarding the use of a Thai base for the marine operation in the Mayaguez rescue. Nevertheless, several hundred demonstrators harassed members of the United States Embassy in Bangkok. [New York Times] The White House said that President Ford has decided to repeat his last year's veto of pioneering legislation to curb the environmental damage of strip mining for coal, which Congress has strongly supported. An effort in Congress to override the veto is expected this week. [New York Times] New York City's financial condition worsened when three large banks and an investment concern declined to buy $280 million in bond anticipation notes offered without bidding by Controller Harrison Goldin. "They told us there was no public market at this point," Mr. Goldin said after officials of the institutions -- Morgan Guaranty Trust, First National City and Chase Manhattan and Salomon Brothers, the investment concern -- had notified the Controller of their decision. Mr. Goldin said the financiers were "prepared to explore with us alternative financing means." [New York Times] Federal agents, conducting a sweeping investigation in New Orleans and other ports, are piecing together a picture of corruption in the handling, grading and weighing of grain that raises questions about the integrity of United States standards and the quality of grain shipments to foreign buyers. Seven privately employed grain inspectors licensed by the Department of Agriculture have been indicted so far. [New York Times] Authoritative sources said that the Rockefeller Commission had learned of documents supporting the charge that the Central Intelligence Agency contracted with the Mafia in a 1961 plot to kill Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba. [New York Times] In an abrupt reversal -- indeed a 180-degree turn in mid-passage -- the Supreme Court unanimously conceded that the maritime collision law it has enforced since 1854 was unfair. The Justices said that financial responsibility for a collision at sea should be divided proportionately among two or more parties involved, depending on the relative degree of fault of each of them. Since 1854, the Court has maintained that two ships that collide must divide the resulting damage expense equally regardless of the degree of liability. [New York Times] North Vietnam's fourth-ranking Politburo member, who for the last eight years secretly coordinated activities against Saigon, was reported to have emerged as the apparent political leader in South Vietnam following the Communist takeover. He is Pham Hung, and the prominence given his appearance at celebrations marking the Communist victory was regarded by the American intelligence community as a sign that Hanoi probably plans to direct developments in South Vietnam closely. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 837.69 (+0.08, +0.01%)
S&P Composite: 90.53 (+0.10, +0.11%)
Arms Index: 0.77

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	693	8.91
Declines	666	6.61
Unchanged	433	2.35
Total Volume		17.87

* 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*
May 16, 1975	837.61	90.43	16.63
May 15, 1975	848.80	91.41	27.69
May 14, 1975	858.73	92.27	29.05
May 13, 1975	850.13	91.58	24.95
May 12, 1975	847.47	90.61	22.41
May 9, 1975	850.13	90.53	28.44
May 8, 1975	840.50	89.56	22.98
May 7, 1975	836.44	89.08	22.25
May 6, 1975	834.72	88.64	25.41
May 5, 1975	855.60	90.08	22.37