News stories from Tuesday May 20, 1975

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

The House Democratic leadership, facing solid Republican opposition and deep divisions among Democratic members, postponed indefinitely a House vote on legislation to raise the federal gasoline tax and take other steps to conserve energy. It appeared that a vote this week would have killed the measure. The delay raised the possibility that President Ford would no longer delay his plan to add $1 a barrel to the import fee. He may act before the House returns June 2 from the recess. [New York Times] The House of Representatives, in its first expression since the Vietnam war of its attitude on military policy, voted 111-95 against an amendment requiring a reduction of 70,000 in the 416,500 troops stationed abroad, and 216-183 against a cut in new weapons programs. The new Congress with its 75 freshman Democrats had seemed more critical of the defense budget, but this attitude changed perceptibly after American policy in Indochina collapsed. [New York Times] The United States Department of Labor ordered Mayor Beame to dismiss seven municipal neighborhood workers paid with federal money on the ground that they had been hired because of political ties to the Democratic party. Mr. Beame said he would comply. In a joint statement he said that the seven persons appeared to be qualified for the jobs but that the circumstances of their hiring taken as a whole violated federal rules on political discrimination. [New York Times] Communist-led Pathet Lao troops occupied the central Laotian city of Savannakhet, where student demonstrators have been holding American aid officials and their dependents under house arrest. The Pathet Lao forces have now entered virtually all major towns in the southern area formerly under rightist control. The takeover in Savannakhet came without violence and with the rightist general commanding the region on hand to welcome the Pathet Lao commander. [New York Times] Saigon still lacks a civilian government three weeks after the Communist takeover. Markets and shops are open but banks are still closed, international air schedules are not met and cable traffic is limited. There is talk of reunification with North Vietnam, perhaps within the year. [New York Times] An international panel has unanimously recommended drastic changes in the United Nations structure for dealing with economic issues. The first major attempt at revision in United Nations history would seek increased collaboration between rich and poor countries. Instead of confrontations and voting showdowns in which developing third-world countries easily outnumber the industrial powers, there would be an intricate process of negotiating disputes to reach consensus. The new post of Director General for Development and International Economic Cooperation would rank second only to the Secretary General. [New York Times] Secretary of State Kissinger and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko agreed in Vienna to try to cooperate on a framework for reconvening the Geneva conference on the Middle East, newsmen traveling with Mr. Kissinger were told. They also heard that the two diplomats would discuss details, probably in July somewhere in Europe. The newsmen were informed that the Palestine Liberation Organization must participate in the conference, in Mr. Gromyko's view, but that he was flexible on the timing of their role. Some progress was apparently made toward nuclear arms talks. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 830.49 (-7.20, -0.86%)
S&P Composite: 90.07 (-0.46, -0.51%)
Arms Index: 1.03

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	659	7.42
Declines	736	8.57
Unchanged	423	2.32
Total Volume		18.31

* 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 19, 1975	837.69	90.53	17.87
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