News stories from Tuesday October 5, 1976

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

The strongest campaign charges to date about Watergate were made by Senator Walter Mondale. Speaking to students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate accused the Ford administration of "a fundamental failure to heed the lessons of Watergate." starting with the pardon of Richard Nixon and continuing its present policies. [New York Times] Preparations were being speeded for the second television debate between President Ford and Jimmy Carter. The TV confrontation will take place tomorrow night in San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, an extravagant blend of romantic and classical architecture. [New York Times] Radioactive fallout from a nuclear test in China 10 days ago, sweeping across the Pacific Ocean, has been found along the East Coast, the federal government reported. Radiation has been detected in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, including high readings in parts of Long Island and upstate. As laboratory testing continued, the government said that "at the levels reported thus far," the radiation was far below the danger mark. [New York Times] After striking for 21 days, the United Automobile Workers reached a tentative three-year contract with the Ford Motor Company. No details were announced, pending consideration by union members. [New York Times] Stock prices dropped and the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 11.22 points to 966.76. The declines occurred amid rising fears of an economic downturn and a possible rise in oil prices. The credit markets, in contrast, reflected optimism. Interest rates on state and city bonds fell as investment bankers bid aggressively to buy $116 million of Massachusetts bonds and several other big issues. [New York Times] In a bitter rebuke to Soviet "expansionist" strategies, China rebuffed cautious Soviet moves to resume normal diplomatic relations following the death of Mao-Tse-tung. In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Foreign Minister Chino Kuan-hua quoted heavily from Chairman Mao and seemed eager to stress a continuing consistency by the new Peking leadership with Mao's policies. [New York Times] The Ford administration was accused of not having used all diplomatic approaches before it launched an attack against Cambodia last year to rescue the cargo ship Mayaguez and her crew. The conclusion was reached in a congressional-sponsored study made public by the General Accounting Office. It said that while the administration had undertaken some diplomatic initiatives, "little weight appears to have been given to indications that the Cambodians might be working out a political solution." [New York Times] Lebanese leaders and Western diplomats in Beirut are perplexed by American policy in Lebanon. The United States, alone among the major powers, has given up all efforts to exert direct diplomatic influence and to obtain direct political and military information there. All American diplomats have moved into their embassy in Beirut and rarely leave it. [New York Times] A maximum fine of $13,375,000 was imposed on the Allied Chemical Corporation by a federal district judge in Richmond for polluting Virginia's historic James River for almost four years with the highly toxic insecticide Kepone, The government charged that Allied officials in Hopewell, Va., had conspired to withhold data about the discharges that would have alerted Washington earlier to what the prosecutor called "this greatest disaster of the environmental decade." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 966.75 (-11.23, -1.15%)
S&P Composite: 103.23 (-0.80, -0.77%)
Arms Index: 1.54

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	418	3.42
Declines	1,022	12.88
Unchanged	457	2.90
Total Volume		19.20

* 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*
October 4, 1976	977.98	104.03	12.63
October 1, 1976	979.89	104.17	20.62
September 30, 1976	990.19	105.24	14.70
September 29, 1976	991.19	105.37	18.09
September 28, 1976	994.93	105.92	20.44
September 27, 1976	1013.13	107.26	17.43
September 24, 1976	1009.31	106.80	17.40
September 23, 1976	1010.80	106.92	24.21
September 22, 1976	1014.05	107.46	32.97
September 21, 1976	1014.79	107.83	30.30