News stories from Friday May 9, 1975

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

A Senate-House conference committee agreed to set a tentative ceiling of $367 billion on government spending for the new fiscal year beginning July 1. The committee estimates that this ceiling, if maintained, would mean a deficit of $68.8 billion. The deficit and spending figures appeared to be considerably higher than the deficit and spending totals that President Ford has said are the highest he would tolerate. [New York Times] The Senate Armed Services Committee, preparing for the annual defense debate in the Senate, proposed a 9 percent reduction in the Defense Department's weapons procurement and research programs in the coming fiscal year. The committee, acting on the military authorization bill, approved most of the major weapons programs proposed by the Defense Department, and it made deeper, across-the-board reductions in Pentagon funding than has been its practice in recent years. [New York Times] The Commerce Department said that the nation's businesses sold far greater quantities of goods than they bought in March, resulting in a record monthly decline of $1.9 billion in business inventories. Sales, however, declined in March -- down 2.5 percent from February -- and businesses ended up with a higher proportion of inventories, compared to sales, than they had in the previous month. A substantial decline in inventories is regarded as essential to an upturn in the nation's economy. [New York Times] The highest court in Massachusetts heard an appeal for Alger Hiss, 70 years old, to be readmitted as a lawyer in the state on grounds of good character and good record since his release from prison in 1954. The seven-judge Supreme Judicial Court reserved decision after Mr. Hiss's lawyer challenged a report that he contended would require Mr. Hiss to "falsely confess" guilt in the 1950 perjury conviction. [New York Times] Five pro-American cabinet ministers, including the Ministers or Defense and Finance, reportedly resigned from Laos's coalition government, in the midst of mounting protests against United States policies and following a demonstration by several thousand Laotian students and teachers against rising prices and foreign economic influences. Some demonstrators threw stones at the United States Embassy in Vientiane. There was no official confirmation of the resignations, which were reported by highly placed sources. [New York Times] The military administrative committee running the Saigon area established a cash-only economy for South Vietnam and issued a series of orders to foreigners, including diplomats, according to Saigon broadcasts monitored in Hong Kong. The radio said that the South Vietnamese currency used by the old regime was the only legal tender and that checks were banned. The use of other currencies was forbidden, and banks were closed for the time being. [New York Times] The new Cambodian government announced a major reconstruction program for the country's shattered industry and agriculture. The Cambodian radio, monitored in Bangkok, said that the economy would still be based on farming but that intensive efforts were also under way to rebuild factories destroyed by the losing side as the five-year war ended. [New York Times] The South Vietnamese refugee population on Guam continued to grow rapidly as more than 8,000 new refugees arrived on three merchant ships. The new arrivals brought Guam's present refugee population to nearly 48,000, or almost one-third of the island's total civilian population. In recent days, 38,000 refugees, who were taken to Guam after the fall of Saigon, left the island to go to the continental United States. On Monday, some 20,000 more South Vietnamese are expected to arrive at Guam on the last six refugee ships from the Philippines. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 850.13 (+9.63, +1.15%)
S&P Composite: 90.53 (+0.97, +1.08%)
Arms Index: 0.57

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,084	20.86
Declines	429	4.70
Unchanged	329	2.88
Total Volume		28.44

* 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*
May 8, 1975	840.50	89.56	22.98
May 7, 1975	836.44	89.08	22.25
May 6, 1975	834.72	88.64	25.41
May 5, 1975	855.60	90.08	22.37
May 2, 1975	848.48	89.22	25.21
May 1, 1975	830.96	88.10	20.66
April 30, 1975	821.34	87.30	18.06
April 29, 1975	803.04	85.64	17.74
April 28, 1975	810.00	86.23	17.85
April 25, 1975	811.80	86.62	20.25