News stories from Thursday August 5, 1976

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

The Senate, voting 78 to 13, approved an omnibus bill that would revise and broaden the clean air act of 1970, which established a federal-state effort to improve air quality. The measure would expand the 1970 law by adding provisions that would protect regions where air quality is above existing national standards and would extend deadlines for the automobile industry to meet exhaust emission standards. [New York Times] Gov. Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania said the cause of the mysterious flu-like disease that broke out after an American Legion convention in Philadelphia "is probably not" influenza virus. The disease has killed 23 people, and 138 others are in hospitals throughout the state. A team of environmental experts from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta has gone to Philadelphia to investigate the origin of the illness. [New York Times] Major changes in the ways national policy is determined in science and technology at the highest level will follow today's expected Senate confirmation of Dr. Guyford Stever as director of the new Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Stever's appointment will restore a representative of the scientific community to the White House staff. The science advisory post was abolished by President Nixon in 1973. [New York Times] The White House said that President Ford would announce his choice of a running mate in the traditional way, waiting until he has been nominated at the Republican National Convention. Meanwhile, controversy increased over John Connally, who is regarded as a prime vice-presidential possibility on the Ford ticket, and Ronald Reagan showed more progress than the President in winning over convention delegates. [New York Times] Ronald Reagan picked up six delegates in New York and New Jersey in his first campaign trip to the Northeast, accompanied by his liberal Republican running mate, Senator Richard Schweiker. At meetings in Newark and Brooklyn, Mr. Reagan said that the Reagan-Schweiker "coalition" was aimed at the Northeastern states. [New York Times] The trip that Ronald Reagan and Senator Richard Schweiker made to Mississippi Wednesday in an attempt to reassure conservative delegates who are cool to the liberal Mr. Schweiker apparently was not successful. A new count by the New York Times and other news organizations gave President Ford a small, tenuous majority of Mississippi's 60 convention delegates and alternates, each of whom has a half vote under the state's rules. [New York Times] Another attempt by black South African students to march the nine miles from the township of Soweto to hold a protest in front of Johannesburg police headquarters was halted when policemen fired over the heads of the marchers. Many adults joined in the march. One student was reportedly carried from the scene after the shots were fired, but the police denied that there had been casualties. Earlier, they confirmed reports that three blacks were killed during the disturbances in Soweto on Wednesday. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 986.68 (-5.60, -0.56%)
S&P Composite: 103.85 (-0.58, -0.56%)
Arms Index: 1.11

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	573	4.99
Declines	776	7.53
Unchanged	487	3.01
Total Volume		15.53

* 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*
August 4, 1976	992.28	104.43	20.65
August 3, 1976	990.33	104.14	18.50
August 2, 1976	982.26	103.19	13.87
July 30, 1976	984.64	103.44	14.83
July 29, 1976	979.29	102.93	13.33
July 28, 1976	981.33	103.05	16.00
July 27, 1976	984.13	103.48	15.58
July 26, 1976	991.51	104.07	13.53
July 23, 1976	990.91	104.06	15.87
July 22, 1976	991.08	103.93	15.60