News stories from Tuesday December 14, 1976

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

President-elect Jimmy Carter named Michael Blumenthal, chief executive of the Bendix Corporation, and Representative Brock Adams, Democrat of Washington, to be his Secretaries of the Treasury and of Transportation, respectively. Introducing both men at a news conference in Atlanta, Mr. Carter said the nation's economic condition was much worse than he or his advisers had previously thought. [New York Times] Representative Andrew Young of Georgia will be nominated tomorrow by Mr. Carter as the chief delegate to the United Nations, according to authoritative sources in Washington. The 44-year-old black leader had insisted for months he would remain in Congress, but now he has reportedly told friends he could not decline the chance to associate the United States with the aspirations of poor nations. In Atlanta, Mr. Carter said Jane Cahill Pfeiffer had asked not to be considered for nomination to his cabinet. [New York Times] President-elect Carter said that before taking office he would unveil a program to stimulate the economy, concentrating on job-producing programs within the existing administrative system for swift results. Earlier, he met in Atlanta with a delegation of mayors, including New York's Mayor Beame, who urged increased government spending rather than a tax cut. [New York Times] The final Ford defense budget will be set at the relatively low level of $123 billion, compared with $112.8 billion in appropriations approved by Congress for the current year. This is expected to make it difficult for President-elect Carter to carry out his campaign hopes of defense cuts after taking office. [New York Times] A slowdown in recovery was indicated by Department of Commerce figures for October showing an 0.5 percent increase in stocks of unsold merchandise, reflecting that demand was weaker than expected. The revised figure for September showed a 1.2 percent rise in inventories. Officials said that the apparent improvement in October might be due to a rundown in retail stocks of autos during the Ford strike. [New York Times] Sales of Ford cars were up 5.3 percent from last year, recovering from the slump during the United Auto Workers strike. But overall car sales increased only 1 percent in the first 10 days of December. Ford's share of the market climbed to 27.5 percent, compared with 26.4 percent a year ago. [New York Times] Stock prices registered another gain, with Dow Jones industrials up 6.39 points, closing at 980.63. The bond market strengthened, with gains for both government and corporate issues in trading more active than on Monday. [New York Times] Speedy readmission to West Point for all cadets who left during the recent cheating scandal has been urged by a special commission headed by Frank Borman, the former astronaut. The Army is preparing a separate internal report critical of the Military Academy for its handling of Army lawyers who defended accused cadets. [New York Times] A study for the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council has found that chance of death or severe complications for a patient undergoing an operation is two and a half times as great if he has his surgery at one hospital rather than another. The study found the quality of the nursing staff, the amount the hospital spends per patient and caution in giving doctors staff privileges the most important hospital-related factors. [New York Times] The word from Qatar on the Persian Gulf, where ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will open their meeting tomorrow, is that sentiment is building for a "moderate" price rise. One minister was doubtful that the rise could be held to less than 10 percent. [New York Times] Vietnam's Communist Party held its first congress since the 1960 meeting that approved the principle of an armed struggle to take over South Vietnam, which was accomplished last year. The gathering in Hanoi was dominated by a huge statue of the late President, Ho Chi Minh. In a six-hour broadcast address, Le Duan, the first secretary, outlined plans for agricultural and industrial expansion, encouragement of foreign trade and investment and a stronger government structure both in the north and the newly acquired south. [New York Times] A message from Pope Paul VI to foreign heads of government and to all Roman Catholic churches denounced the arms race as false and dangerous, rejecting the "ancient saying" that "if you want peace, prepare for war." In his message, entitled "If you want peace, defend life," he reaffirmed his opposition to abortion. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 980.63 (+6.39, +0.66%)
S&P Composite: 105.07 (+0.44, +0.42%)
Arms Index: 0.79

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	863	13.51
Declines	620	7.71
Unchanged	459	3.91
Total Volume		25.13

* 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*
December 13, 1976	974.24	104.63	24.83
December 10, 1976	973.15	104.70	25.96
December 9, 1976	970.74	104.51	31.80
December 8, 1976	963.26	104.08	24.56
December 7, 1976	960.69	103.49	26.14
December 6, 1976	961.77	103.56	24.83
December 3, 1976	950.55	102.76	22.64
December 2, 1976	946.64	102.12	23.30
December 1, 1976	949.38	102.49	21.96
November 30, 1976	947.22	102.10	17.03