News stories from Wednesday April 21, 1976
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Labor Department reported that the Consumer Price Index rose only two-tenths of 1 percent in March, continuing the nation's much slower inflation pace. Once again, falling food prices played a key role, along with a dip in gasoline prices, but these trends are unlikely to continue and the index will probably go up more in the months ahead. [New York Times]
- Jimmy Carter has entered the second phase of the presidential campaign in the anomalous position of a front-runner still searching for a solid base in the Democratic Party. The perils are writ large for him in Pennsylvania, where primary politics are more like a convention than a popularity contest, with power blocs standing shoulder to shoulder against him as the Tuesday vote approaches. [New York Times]
- President Ford accused Ronald Reagan of "preposterous" and "demagogic" statements in saying that the United States was slipping behind the Soviet Union in military preparedness. In an address to the annual congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, Mr. Ford suggested that Mr. Reagan was seizing on the defense issue because "a grab bag of other issues has been tried and failed." The sharpness of Mr. Ford's response indicated concern that his challenger was making it the key issue in the Republican primary in Texas which will take place May 1. [New York Times]
- A test case challenging New York state's use of the property tax to finance public education went to trial in state Supreme Court in Mineola, Long Island. Twenty-five suburban and rural school districts and the state's four largest cities brought the action. It is the latest in many parts of the country following a California Supreme Court ruling in 1971 that this kind of school funding discriminates invidiously against the poor by making the quality of a child's education a function of his parents' and neighbors' wealth. [New York Times]
- Executives of the Summa Corporation, the umbrella corporation of the late billionaire Howard Hughes, are preparing to extend their search for his will to 40 American cities where he was known to have lived or stayed. One source said that the company's investigators would soon canvass banks in New York and elsewhere looking for a safe deposit box that might contain the document. This was presaged by classified newspaper advertisements asking information, a legal prerequisite for such a search. [New York Times]
- Egypt and China signed a military protocol in Peking, saying it heralded a new phase in their relations. A toast was drunk at the final dinner of Egyptian Vice President Hosni Mubarak's visit, hailing the closer cooperation since Cairo scrapped its friendship treaty with the Soviet Union last month. The protocol was understood to cover spare parts for Egypt's Soviet-supplied MiG fighters. The Soviet-Egyptian rift has been greeted with thinly disguised delight in Peking, and Mr. Mubarak's delegation received an unusually lavish welcome. [New York Times]
- Giovanni Theodoli, president of the Italian Oil Producers Association and of Chevron Oil ltaliana, was shot and seriously wounded In Rome. The attack, for which an extreme left-wing group claimed responsibility, underscored the rising level of political violence that is generating social tensions on top of governmental troubles and the monetary crisis. Acts of violence have intensified with the increasing prospect of national elections this summer. [New York Times]
- The Spanish government is sending eight paintings by Francisco de Goya from the Prado collection in Madrid for exhibition in the National Gallery of Art in Washington early next month to honor the United States Bicentennial. The loan serves as an overture for the state visit of King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sophia, starting on June 2. Only two of the paintings have ever left Spain before -- the "Naked Maja" and "Clothed Maja" which were shown at the New York World's Fair in 1939. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1011.02 (+7.56, +0.75%)
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* |
| April 20, 1976 | 1003.46 | 102.87 | 23.50 |
| April 19, 1976 | 988.11 | 101.44 | 16.50 |
| April 15, 1976 | 980.48 | 100.67 | 15.10 |
| April 14, 1976 | 974.65 | 100.31 | 18.44 |
| April 13, 1976 | 984.26 | 101.05 | 15.99 |
| April 12, 1976 | 971.27 | 100.20 | 16.03 |
| April 9, 1976 | 968.28 | 100.35 | 19.05 |
| April 8, 1976 | 977.09 | 101.28 | 20.86 |
| April 7, 1976 | 986.22 | 102.21 | 20.19 |
| April 6, 1976 | 1001.65 | 103.36 | 24.17 |