News stories from Monday August 30, 1976

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

The Federal Election Commission ruled that the League of Women Voters will be able to finance televised debates between national candidates of the Republican and Democratic Parties without violating the new ban on private campaign contributions in the general election. The decision was unanimous. The commission said, however, that the league could not accept direct contributions from corporations or labor unions to help to pay for the television time. [New York Times] Alan Greenspan, the administration's chief economic forecaster, told President Ford at a cabinet meeting that the economic recovery was now at a "pause," but added the slowdown was only temporary. He said that slowdowns invariably occurred in a period of economic recovery and that "the basic recovery is solidly in place with no evidence of underlying deterioration." [New York Times] Public hearings into the allegations of improper and illegal conduct by Representative Wayne Hays, Democrat of Ohio, was unanimously voted by the House ethics committee, They are scheduled to start Sept. 16. The committee's action was expected to put increased pressure on Mr. Hays to resign from the House. [New York Times] House and Senate conferees agreed. as expected, to extend through 1977 the individual tax reductions that were enacted last year for anti-recession purposes and slightly expanded this year. [New York Times] Senator Frank Moss sat behind piles of medications that he said had been prescribed for him and five equally healthy aides as they described at a Senate hearing their experiences when they masqueraded as Medicaid patients in New York and other cities. The Senator and his aides told of a pattern of callous treatment, misdiagnosis, unnecessary therapy, and what Mr. Moss called "ping-ponging" -- the referral of patients to unneeded physicians and pharmacies. Mr. Moss is chairman of the subcommittee on long-term care of the Special Committee on Aging, which conducted the hearing. [New York Times] Under competitive and customer pressures, the United States Steel Corporation took the unusual action of rescinding a 4.5 percent price increase scheduled to become effective Oct. 1. The reversal, which was expected to become industry-wide, was followed by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Inland Steel. It could dampen potential future price advances in the automobile, appliance and construction industries, analysts said. [New York Times] Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will meet in Zurich this weekend with Prime Minister John Vorster of South Africa, the State Department announced today. Then Mr. Kissinger, depending on the outcome of the Zurich meeting, might go on to Africa, visiting several countries, including South Africa, to advocate a British-American solution for white-ruled Rhodesia. [New York Times] The Dutch Parliament voted overwhelmingly against a left-wing call for the criminal prosecution of Prince Bernhard for his involvement in the Lockheed bribery scandal. Leaders of the five major parties in the center-left coalition government and of the opposition debated the issue on television. Afterward, Parliament voted 148 to 2 against prosecution. The only votes in favor came from the Pacifist Socialist Party. The majority, however, concluded that Prince Bernhard's association with Lockheed had harmed the Netherlands. [New York Times] La Soufriere, the long-smoldering volcano on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, exploded and French authorities reported that flying stones injured two volcanologists who had been studying the volcano. Helicopters rescued 12 scientists trapped near the rim of the volcano. [New York Times] Six more people died over the weekend in black strife in the township of Soweto in South Africa, bringing to 42 the number killed since a new upheaval a week ago. A total of 206 people was unofficially estimated to have died since anti-government rioting erupted two months ago. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 968.92 (+4.99, +0.52%)
S&P Composite: 102.07 (+0.59, +0.58%)
Arms Index: 0.73

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	864	6.43
Declines	488	2.65
Unchanged	467	2.06
Total Volume		11.14

* 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 27, 1976	963.93	101.48	12.12
August 26, 1976	960.44	101.32	15.27
August 25, 1976	970.83	102.03	17.40
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