News stories from Tuesday October 28, 1975

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

Generalissimo Francisco Franco has taken another turn for the worse and his doctors called his condition "extraordinarily grave." So much improvement had been reported earlier that government officials were said to have decided to wait until Friday in the hope that Spain's 82-year-old Chief of State would be lucid enough to sign a document handing over power to his designated successor, Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon. The urgency of filling the power vacuum was underlined by the resumption of high-level talks with Morocco over Spanish Sahara. [New York Times] The United States remains vulnerable to another foreign oil embargo despite presidential exhortations and congressional debates, with the goal of "energy independence" still distant. Government analysts believe that as the American economy climbs out of recession, energy consumption and oil imports will resume their long-term upward trend. Because Canada has cut back on exports to the United States, the Arab countries now provide an even larger share of this country's oil than in 1973. [New York Times] Third-quarter profit reports showed that the upturn in the economy had aided some companies but not others, The General Motors Corporation's earnings rose from $16 million a year earlier to $243 million. The Consolidated Edison Company of New York raised profits by more than 17 percent. Other major corporations, including the United States Steel Corporation, the Gulf Oil Corporation, the Atlantic Richfield Company and the Cities Service Company, reported substantial declines. [New York Times] Senator William Proxmire, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Adlai Stevenson III agreed to a compromise expected to assure the committee's narrow approval of the New York City loan guarantee bill. The measure as revised would place the city in a virtual receivership, under the total fiscal control of a federal board headed by Treasury Secretary William Simon. [New York Times] President Ford reportedly will propose legislation to assure the continuance of police and fire protection and other vital services if New York City defaults. Administration officials said his suddenly scheduled speech to the National Press Club tomorrow would outline a plan which one of them called a mechanism to manage default. The announcement caused the Senate Banking Committee to defer until Thursday its vote on a $4 billion bill to guarantee loans for New York. [New York Times] A New York real estate group was indicted and charged with a $200 million swindle in the public sale of what United States Attorney Paul Curran called "undeveloped semi-arid desert lots" in a New Mexico area called Rio Rancho Estates. The indictment charged that more than 45,000 people from 37 states had been defrauded. [New York Times] Governor Carey said he was considering a request for a $300 million corporate tax increase at a special legislative session to help close the deficit in the state budget. He also said he would seek additional tax increases to help New York City if the federal government made that a requirement for extending national assistance to avoid default by the city. [New York Times] Armed men in Beirut's Parliament Square denounced Lebanon's political leaders, then shot up the Chamber of Deputies, killing a member's bodyguard and wounding a gendarme. The attack followed the announcement of a new initiative by Premier Rashid Karam to end the factional fighting between the Christian right and the Moslem left that has brought the capital to the edge of chaos. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 851.46 (+12.98, +1.55%)
S&P Composite: 90.51 (+0.78, +0.87%)
Arms Index: 0.77

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	882	10.21
Declines	534	4.75
Unchanged	425	2.10
Total Volume		17.06

* 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*
October 27, 1975	838.48	89.73	13.10
October 24, 1975	840.52	89.83	18.12
October 23, 1975	855.16	91.24	17.90
October 22, 1975	849.57	90.71	16.06
October 21, 1975	846.82	90.56	20.80
October 20, 1975	842.25	89.82	13.25
October 17, 1975	832.18	88.86	15.65
October 16, 1975	837.85	89.37	18.91
October 15, 1975	837.22	89.23	14.44
October 14, 1975	835.25	89.28	19.96