News stories from Wednesday August 25, 1976

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

Jimmy Carter, addressing the Iowa State Fair at Des Moines, accused former President Richard Nixon, President Ford and Earl Butz, their Secretary of Agriculture, of forcing hundreds of American farmers Into bankruptcy. He pledged tax appraisal of farms on agricultural value rather than on commercial potential, price supports at a level at least matching production costs, a predictable agricultural program and no embargoes on farm exports. [New York Times] President Ford revamped his campaign organization by appointing James Baker, who directed the delegate search that clinched his nomination, as chairman of the President Ford Committee, replacing Rogers C. B. Morton, who was made steering committee chairman. Aides said that these and other moves were designed to strengthen Mr. Ford's candidacy in New Jersey, California and the major industrial states. [New York Times] The 1,980 inmates of the New York State prison at Attica prepared for a cellblock-by-cellblock vote on a proposed settlement. Meanwhile the three-day strike was continued by most inmates as they boycotted meals, classes and work assignments in a show of solidarity. Correction officials said their talks with prisoner leaders demanding reform were serious. [New York Times] A new series of tests on specimens from victims who died of a mysterious disease in Pennsylvania have shown "suggestive" findings that a highly toxic chemical called nickel carbonyl caused the outbreak, according to the leader of the scientific team that did the tests. Dr. F. William Sunderman, a leading expert on nickel poisoning at the University of Connecticut Medical School, said there was five times as much nickel in tissue specimens from those who died as in tissue of other patients who died from unrelated causes. [New York Times] The House ethics committee voted to compel the appearance of Daniel Schorr, a Washington correspondent of CBS News; Clay Felker, editor of New York magazine and editor-in-chief of The Village Voice, and two of Mr. Felker's aides to testify. The committee is investigating the unauthorized disclosure of a report on Central Intelligence Agency activities. Other subpoenas were voted for 18 former staff aides to the House Select Committee on Intelligence. [New York Times] The General Motors Corporation, the traditional price leader among major American automobile companies, announced that the average price of its 1977 models, including optional equipment typically chosen, would rise by 5.9 percent or $338 a car. The comparable increase last year was 5.7 percent. The company said higher costs of labor and materials, notably the 12 percent increase in steel this summer, compelled it. [New York Times] Prime Minister Jacques Chirac of France resigned, charging that President Valery Giscard d'Estaing had withheld the authority he needed to deal with the country's problems. The Gaullist leader had led the government for two years. The President, who heads the small Independent Republican Party, named the Foreign Trade Minister, Raymond Barre, a nonparty professor of economics, to succeed. Mr. Chirac. Mr. Giscard d'Estaing said he had refused Mr. Chirac increased powers because that would have given the country two power centers. [New York Times] North Korea proposed partition of the Panmunjom truce site at the border with South Korea as a way of avoiding incidents like that last week in which two United States officers were killed by Communist guards. The proposal seemed to be similar to an old American plan. The senior United States officer on the Military Armistice Commission said that it might be a positive step, but he called the North Korean statement unsatisfactory in that it failed to meet the demand to punish the killers. [New York Times] The death toil in the black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg rose after a night of terror as marauding Zulus drove other blacks from their homes. The unofficial three-day figure was 19 dead. Black reporters said the South African police had remained passive during the furious backlash against anti-government demonstrators. A police commander called these reports "infamous lies." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 970.83 (+7.90, +0.82%)
S&P Composite: 102.03 (+0.76, +0.75%)
Arms Index: 0.55

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	817	10.86
Declines	566	4.11
Unchanged	472	2.43
Total Volume		17.40

* 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 24, 1976	962.93	101.27	16.74
August 23, 1976	971.49	101.96	15.45
August 20, 1976	974.07	102.37	14.92
August 19, 1976	983.88	103.39	17.23
August 18, 1976	995.01	104.56	17.15
August 17, 1976	999.34	104.80	18.50
August 16, 1976	992.77	104.43	16.21
August 13, 1976	990.19	104.25	13.93
August 12, 1976	987.12	104.22	15.56
August 11, 1976	986.79	104.06	18.71