News stories from Wednesday January 14, 1976

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

The Secretary of the Treasury, William Simon, released an additional $140 million in loans to New York City. He said that in spite of a report doubting some assumptions underlying the city's repayment plan, he found a reasonable prospect of repayment within the terms of the law authorizing the federal aid. [New York Times] The Supreme Court overruled an 1871 decision that had limited the power of states to tax imported goods. The ruling opens the way to substantial tax revenue increases for state and local governments, particularly New York with its severe financial troubles and high volume imports. The eight justices who took part in the new ruling were unanimously for it. [New York Times] The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission said some 30 corporations were being investigated for alleged improper payments such as bribes, kickbacks and illegal contributions, in addition to 15 companies that voluntarily told the S.E.C. of the results of their internal investigations. In another development, the directors of Gulf Oil Corporation asked and received the resignation of Bob Dorsey as chairman in the wake of exposure of Gulf's political payments. [New York Times] John Dunlop announced his resignation as Secretary of Labor. He said that his departure was a direct consequence of President Ford's recent veto of the construction picketing bill, of which Mr. Dunlop was chief architect, but that his resignation was not to protest this. [New York Times] Patricia Hearst took the stand for the first time in a surprise hearing in federal court on whether she had been improperly questioned while in prison. She said she "didn't feel proud" of her participation in a bank robbery in San Francisco. [New York Times] Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said it would ask for legislation requiring the intelligence agencies to notify Congress before beginning any "significant" covert operation. He left the door open for the House of Representatives to propose a joint supervisory committee. [New York Times] The nation's banks expect to write off at least $3 billion in bad loans for 1975, a record high, with seven major New York banks accounting for at least 40 percent of the total. Most of them are expected to show profits more than covering losses.The billions of dollars that American banks have loaned to developing nations may create new problems for the system already plagued by bad real estate, corporate and municipal loans at home. Bank regulators, government officials and many other banking authorities have recently expressed concern over this. [New York Times] Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said that because the Soviet Union had promised a "significant modification" of its position in the stalled talks on limiting strategic arms, he would go to Moscow next week. He said at a Washington news conference that he would seek an agreement despite continued Soviet intervention in Angola. [New York Times] The Spanish government drafted several thousand postal workers into the army in an effort to stem a strong tide of labor agitation estimated to have idled 150,000 workers in the Madrid area alone. Deliveries resumed several hours later, but many banks, factories and building projects were paralyzed. The agitation spread to other cities, notably Barcelona, where the port was tied up. [New York Times] A leader of one of the two groups fighting Soviet-supported forces in Angola said the situation had deteriorated so much that his group might have to resort to international terrorist tactics to keep its cause alive. Paulo Tuba of the National Front for the Liberation of Angola said this in Kinshasa in neighboring Zaire. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 929.63 (+16.69, +1.83%)
S&P Composite: 97.13 (+1.56, +1.63%)
Arms Index: 0.59

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,324	25.09
Declines	309	3.43
Unchanged	284	1.82
Total Volume		30.34

* 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*
January 13, 1976	912.94	95.57	34.53
January 12, 1976	922.39	96.33	30.44
January 9, 1976	911.13	94.95	26.51
January 8, 1976	907.98	94.58	29.03
January 7, 1976	898.69	93.95	33.17
January 6, 1976	890.82	93.53	31.27
January 5, 1976	877.83	92.58	21.96
January 2, 1976	858.71	90.90	10.30
December 31, 1975	852.41	90.19	16.97
December 30, 1975	852.41	89.77	16.04