News stories from Friday May 21, 1976

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

A school bus plunged off a ramp from a bridge over San Francisco Bay in Martinez, Calif., killing 28 members of the Yuba City High School choir. At least 20 others were injured. The bus crashed through the guard rail at the south end of the Martinez-Benicia Bridge and plunged 30 feet. [New York Times] After three months of decline, an increase in food prices in April pushed up the consumer-price inflation rate for the month, the Labor Department said. The increases in the prices of other goods and services was slight. The Consumer Price index rose by four-tenths of 1 percent both before and after adjustment for normal seasonal changes in some prices. [New York Times] Government officials said that they were reviewing what they called "problem welds" on the Alaska oil pipeline. Depending on how many welds joining sections of the 48-inch pipe are ordered replaced, the repair work could cost tens of millions -- possibly hundreds of millions of dollars -- and delay for months the mid-1977 completion date for the 800-mile line, whose cost had been estimated at $7 billion. [New York Times] With its powers fully restored, the reconstituted Federal Election Commission quickly approved more than $3.2 million in retroactive matching funds payments, which had been suspended in January, to nine candidates and $500,000 each to the Republican and Democratic National Committees to help finance their nominating conventions. President Ford was the principal beneficiary. He got a check for more than $1.3 million. Ronald Reagan qualified for more than $500,000. Jimmy Carter got $437,000 and Representative Morris Udall $312,000. [New York Times] The British pound fell sharply to $1.7782, a record low, but recovered slightly when the Bank of England announced an increase in the basic lending rate for the second time in less than a month. The pound closed at $1.781, ending a day below $1.80 for the first time. [New York Times] If asked to, France is prepared to send "several regiments" to Lebanon on 48 hours' notice to oversee peace there, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing told reporters who have been following his state visit to the United States. In a statement to reporters in New Orleans he said that the conditions of French involvement were a request from the government of Lebanon, the establishment of an effective government in Beirut and a situation in which the French could be asked to maintain order. He said that if French soldiers were sent to restore order and to end the civil war, they would be ready for combat if necessary. [New York Times] The 15 foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ended their meeting in Oslo today with a strong warning that the Soviet Union is endangering detente by its continuing military build-up in Central Europe and lack of "restraint" elsewhere. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who made a tough speech when the meeting began Thursday about the dangers of not offsetting growing Soviet power, said at a news conference at the meeting's conclusion that "our impression is that Soviet strength is likely to grow and that therefore larger efforts by NATO are necessary, especially in the field of conventional and tactical forces." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 990.75 (-6.52, -0.65%)
S&P Composite: 101.26 (-0.74, -0.73%)
Arms Index: 1.47

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	566	4.92
Declines	887	11.31
Unchanged	435	2.50
Total Volume		18.73

* 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 20, 1976	997.27	102.00	22.56
May 19, 1976	988.90	101.18	18.45
May 18, 1976	989.45	101.26	17.41
May 17, 1976	987.64	101.09	14.72
May 14, 1976	992.60	101.34	16.80
May 13, 1976	1001.10	102.16	16.73
May 12, 1976	1005.67	102.77	18.51
May 11, 1976	1006.61	102.95	23.59
May 10, 1976	1007.48	103.10	22.76
May 7, 1976	996.22	101.88	17.81