News stories from Friday February 27, 1976

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

Government statistics indicate that the economic recovery is gaining strength and that some analysts' fears of an early end to the recovery might have been unduly pessimistic. The Commerce Department reported that the composite index of leading economic indicators -- designed to show the way the economy is headed -- moved sharply upward in January. After half a year of virtually no improvement, the index moved up 2.2 percent in January to 106.3 percent of its 1967 level. The department also reported the first monthly trade deficit in a year indicating a rise in domestic spending. [New York Times] President Ford is expected to name Thomas Gates, a banker and a former defense secretary, to succeed George Bush, the new Director of Central Intelligence, as head of the United States liaison office in Peking. [New York Times] Influenza has reached epidemic proportions in four regions of the country, but federal epidemiologists said that they did not expect a major nationwide epidemic this year because the usual seasonal peak had been passed. In New York City, the number of pneumonia deaths, which are used as a basic indicator of influenza activity because influenza often leads to pneumonia, totaled 243 for the week ended Feb. 20. This was the highest figure in any comparable period since 1940. [New York Times] The Supreme Court, voting 7 to 1, gave Congress three more weeks in which either to reconstitute the Federal Election Commission to meet the standards set by the Court last month or have the commission stripped of most of its powers. [New York Times] Canadian Eskimo leaders presented to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his cabinet a formal claim to ownership of 250,000 square miles of land in northern Canada. In addition, the Eskimo leaders asked for special rights in 500,000 other square miles of land and 800,000 square miles of ocean. The total area comprises one-fifth of all Canada. [New York Times] Enrico Berlinguer, chief of Italy's Communist Party, took a position strongly independent of the Soviet Communists in a speech at the 25th Soviet party congress in Moscow, dramatizing the widening rift between Soviet and Western European Communists. Expressing political views that have provoked growing displeasure from the Kremlin, Mr. Berlinguer told some 5,000 delegates that his party supported Italy's membership in the Atlantic alliance, sought cooperation with diverse ideologies at home and favored ''a pluralistic and democratic system." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 972.61 (-6.22, -0.64%)
S&P Composite: 99.71 (-0.40, -0.40%)
Arms Index: 0.89

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	453	7.42
Declines	1,092	15.96
Unchanged	348	3.56
Total Volume		26.94

* 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*
February 26, 1976	978.83	100.11	34.32
February 25, 1976	994.57	101.69	34.68
February 24, 1976	993.55	102.03	34.38
February 23, 1976	985.28	101.61	31.46
February 20, 1976	987.80	102.10	44.51
February 19, 1976	975.76	101.41	39.21
February 18, 1976	960.09	99.85	29.90
February 17, 1976	950.57	99.05	25.46
February 13, 1976	958.36	99.67	23.87
February 12, 1976	966.78	100.25	28.61