News stories from Thursday September 23, 1976

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

United States Steel's Washington lobbyist confirmed that the company had paid for five golf outings for President Ford during his last 10 years in the House. The White House refused to comment on the disclosure, but one aide said the President was ready to answer questions on the matter during the debate. [New York Times] A generally genteel debate between President Ford and Jimmy Carter before a television audience estimated at 90 million people focused on economic issues. Mr. Ford sought to portray his Democratic opponent as a spendthrift while Mr. Carter accused the President of economic mismanagement and weak leadership. The candidates sought to buttress their arguments with an often bewildering array of statistics.The sound portion of the debate was lost toward the end as Mr. Carter was just beginning to answer a question about the control of intelligence agencies. After the moderator held up a sign, the two candidates stood behind their lecterns waiting for a solution to the problem. The debate resumed after 27 minutes. [New York Times] An unguarded conversation between Vice President Rockefeller and House Speaker Carl Albert about Liberians that included a derogatory remark by Mr. Albert about Senator Edward Brooke was inadvertently recorded through a microphone that had been left open. The two men were awaiting a visit to Congress by the Liberian president. Senator Brooke's office first said the Senator was "shocked" by the remarks, but later said there would be no comment. [New York Times] A deficit twice as large as the figure arrived at last year has been found by applying new and conservative accounting methods to New York City's finances. City officials said the new figure -- $5 billion compared to the earlier $2.6 billion deficit -- did not indicate an increase caused by new spending nor did it increase the need for more cuts. [New York Times] Stock prices fell on a broad front with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 3.25 points to close at 1,010.80. Bond prices dropped sharply following the Federal Reserve report. [New York Times] A sudden upsurge in the basic money supply was reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The increase was a record $4.5 billion in the amount of money in circulation and in checking accounts. Monetary analysts viewed the effect of the increase as largely psychological since single-week fluctuations tend to have little long-term significance. [New York Times] "Several millions of dollars" will be paid to the Gulf Oil Corporation by six former officers, including two former chairmen of the board, to settle claims arising from an illegal political slush fund. The action was taken by the company's board according to sources close to the negotiations. The fund reportedly distributed $12.8 million over a 13-year period. [New York Times] A new Lebanese president was sworn in under the protection of the Syrian army. Elias Sarkis, a banker, called on all sides in the civil war to end the fighting. A few hours later. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, told Mr. Sarkis in a letter that his forces would observe a cease-fire.Syria's goals In Lebanon, for which it has occupied half the country with 15,000 troops, appear to be nearing. The inauguration of President Sarkis was one of the first goals of President Hafez al-Assad, hut his accession to power does not mean the end of the occupation. President Assad still mist work to make Mr. Sarkis a viable president and must find a way to end the civil war permanently. [New York Times] Mixed racial teams and multiracial games at all levels were sanctioned by the South African government. The announcement, which had been expected for some time, was seen as an effort to reopen the door to international competition for South Africa. The decision came amid some of the worst racial unrest since non-white South Africans began their protests three months ago. [New York Times] "A new conformity" may result in Sweden because of the defeat of the Social Democrats, the outgoing Prime Minister, Olof Palme, said in an interview. He said the victory of the three non-Socialist parties would cement the power of the business community and open old wounds between rich and poor. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1010.80 (-3.25, -0.32%)
S&P Composite: 106.92 (-0.54, -0.50%)
Arms Index: 1.20

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	534	6.72
Declines	910	13.73
Unchanged	484	3.76
Total Volume		24.21

* 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 22, 1976	1014.05	107.46	32.97
September 21, 1976	1014.79	107.83	30.30
September 20, 1976	994.51	106.32	21.73
September 17, 1976	995.10	106.27	28.27
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