News stories from Friday January 2, 1976
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- With a sharp decline in unplanned births since 1960, most of the babies being born in the United States are wanted by their parents, according to Dr. Charles Westoff, a Princeton professor and an authority on national fertility trends. He said the country was approaching the "perfect contraceptive population," a situation in which birth control is universally practiced with complete success and, therefore, in which all births are planned and wanted. His study concerned only married women, and did not include illegitimate births. [New York Times]
- An official of the Federal Trade Commission, who has found that automobile sales are the biggest source of consumer complaints, said that the commission proposed that dealers in used cars and trucks be required to place a "disclosure sticker" on all used vehicles offered for sale. The sticker would provide information about the dealer's repairs to the vehicle, the status of the dealer's liability for any future repair work and the vehicle's previous owner and use, if it had belonged to a commercial or government organization. [New York Times]
- Walter Schneir, a co-author with his wife of a book about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted and executed in 1953 for being atomic spies, has turned up records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that, he says, might have resulted in a new trial for the couple if their existence had been known and presented to a federal court. [New York Times]
- Public demonstrations outside prisons in Oporto, in northern Portugal, were banned after incidents on New Year's Day in which three persons were killed and four gravely wounded by guards. One of the victims was identified as a 22-year-old German student, Gunter Bruns, from Hamburg. An official communique said that he had been "interfering in Portuguese politics" and had links with various organizations. [New York Times]
- The Soviet Union appears to have hardened its stand on emigration despite the 1975 Helsinki declaration, which promised freer movement of people and ideas in Europe. Since the East-West agreement, signed last August, not a single prominent applicant in Moscow is reported to have been allowed to leave, nor have any of the Soviet citizens whom the United States government has been seeking to reunite with relatives here. [New York Times]
- Beirut is a battlescape of charred, bullet-pocked and dynamited buildings and shops, depopulated areas where only rats and looters roam, sustained by a timid commercial life. A Western diplomat, away for a month, returned a few days ago and was stunned by the bleakness that had settled over the city after months of factional fighting. "It has died," he said. [New York Times]
- Art experts in Italy reported the discovery of what they believe to be previously unknown frescoes by Michelangelo. The frescoes were found by workmen who broke through a trap door leading to a basement in the sacristy of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence, in which Michelangelo had begun working in 1521. If confirmed, the find would he the second discovery in the last two years of a work attributed to Michelangelo. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 858.71 (+6.30, +0.74%)
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* |
| December 31, 1975 | 852.41 | 90.19 | 16.97 |
| December 30, 1975 | 852.41 | 89.77 | 16.04 |
| December 29, 1975 | 856.66 | 90.13 | 17.07 |
| December 26, 1975 | 859.81 | 90.25 | 10.02 |
| December 24, 1975 | 851.94 | 89.46 | 11.15 |
| December 23, 1975 | 843.75 | 88.73 | 17.75 |
| December 22, 1975 | 838.63 | 88.14 | 15.34 |
| December 19, 1975 | 844.38 | 88.80 | 17.72 |
| December 18, 1975 | 852.09 | 89.43 | 18.04 |
| December 17, 1975 | 846.27 | 89.15 | 16.56 |