News stories from Friday September 17, 1976

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

A ban on most abortions paid for by Medicaid was approved by the Senate and sent to the White House along with a $57 billion H.E.W. appropriation to which it was attached. President Ford is expected to veto the bill because of the size of the appropriation, although he supports the abortion ban section of the bill. [New York Times] A challenge to the Ford-Carter debates by minor party candidates was blocked in Federal District Court in Washington. The judge ruled that Eugene McCarthy and Thomas Anderson of the American Party should have applied first to two federal commissions. Mr. McCarthy's lawyer said he would appeal. An F.C.C. ruling on an effort by Lester Maddox to block the debates is expected early next week. [New York Times] Inviting Republican support, Daniel Patrick Moynihan characterized New York Senator James Buckley as "a man outside the political consensus" of the state and asked Republicans who wanted to save their party from its "extremes" to support him. The attack appeared to signal an attempt by Mr. Moynihan to remind the voters that Mr. Buckley was a Conservative first. [New York Times] The Teamsters' president, Frank Fitzsimmons, forced the resignation of one of his closest associates, William Presser, as a trustee of the union's $1.4 billion Central States Pension Fund. Mr. Fitzsimmons also announced that another trustee of the fund, Frank Ranney, had resigned. Both men had pleaded the Fifth Amendment during a Justice Department investigation of mismanagement of the fund. [New York Times] Casino gambling in Atlantic City, according to a conglomerate that bought the city's largest hotel, would bring 30,000 new jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars into the New Jersey resort. The company, Resorts International, called a news conference to pronounce itself free of organized crime and to list the advantages to Atlantic City if the state's voters approved a casino referendum. [New York Times] Four jailed newsmen were released from a prison farm to which they had been confined since Sept. 3 for refusing to identify the source of articles in the Fresno Bee published in 1975. They were released despite their refusal to give the information at a new hearing held to determine if further confinement would cause them to change their minds. [New York Times] Former RCA associates of Anthony Conrad, who resigned Thursday as the company's chairman, said they were mystified over his failure to file income tax returns for five years, especially since most of the taxes had been paid through withholding. In his statement to RCA's board when he resigned, Mr. Conrad said he owed $704,292 in taxes for the five years and that $648,618 had been paid through withholding. He said he had paid the deficiency plus interest, as well as state and local taxes he owed. [New York Times] Housing starts rose by 11 percent in July, the Commerce Department reported. The increase was led by an increase in the sector of apartment house construction, an area that had been lagging behind the rest of the industry. President Ford and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Carla Hills said the figures were attributable mainly to anti-inflation policies. [New York Times] Stock prices rose on the heaviest volume in almost six months. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 7.15 points to close at 995.10. [New York Times] Amid signs of progress, Secretary of State Kissinger opened discussions with South Africa's Prime Minister, John Vorster, in Pretoria. Mr. Kissinger is reported to believe that South Africa and the black nations have moved within negotiating range on independence for South-West Africa. The problem of Rhodesia, however, still lies ahead. [New York Times] Demonstrators in Soweto were fired on by the police during protests against the visit to South Africa of Secretary Kissinger. The police said one student had been killed, but other sources said six had died. At the same lime, firebombs went off in white areas of Johannesburg in what the police viewed as a show of force by black militants timed to coincide with Mr. Kissinger's arrival. [New York Times] Israeli police killed an Arab youth and wounded another when they opened fire on demonstrators in Jerusalem. Dozens of Arab youths had congregated in the Jewish quarter of the walled Old City to protest increased Israeli settlement in the areas occupied since the 1967 war. The police opened fire after being pelted by stones and bottles hurled from the crowd. [New York Times] Panama accused the United States of using a "destabilization plan" to bring chaos to the country. In a formal protest note, the Panamanian Foreign Minister said Washington was responsible for recent student demonstrations against the high cost of living. [New York Times] A Navy jet fighter is resting in 1,900 feet of water off the coast of Scotland, and the Navy announced it would attempt to recover the plane. The F-14, equipped with a highly secret weapons system, rolled off the deck of a carrier and the Navy would like to find out why. It also would like to prevent the Soviet Union, which has ships in the area, from recovering and analyzing the plane. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 995.10 (+7.15, +0.72%)
S&P Composite: 106.27 (+0.93, +0.88%)
Arms Index: 0.62

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,089	20.36
Declines	406	4.74
Unchanged	421	3.17
Total Volume		28.27

* 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*
September 16, 1976	987.95	105.34	19.62
September 15, 1976	979.31	104.21	17.57
September 14, 1976	978.64	103.94	15.55
September 13, 1976	983.29	104.29	16.10
September 10, 1976	988.36	104.65	16.93
September 9, 1976	986.87	104.40	16.54
September 8, 1976	992.94	104.94	19.75
September 7, 1976	996.59	105.03	16.31
September 3, 1976	989.11	104.30	13.28
September 2, 1976	984.79	103.92	18.92