News stories from Wednesday December 22, 1976

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

The last of the oil in the bow section of the wrecked Liberian-flag tanker Argo Merchant, broken upon the shoal off Nantucket Island, spilled into the sea, raising the total to 7.5 million gallons. The resulting slick extended about 100 miles but moved away from the resort beaches and the Georges Bank fishing grounds during the day as the winds continued to blow offshore. The impact of the disaster remained uncertain as fisheries experts, marine researchers and environmental protection officials met in Boston to assess it. [New York Times] Griffin Bell announced he would resign from all private clubs to which he now belongs. The Attorney General-designate in the Carter administration said he would take this action because he believed his post was a symbol of equality before the law. He belongs to three Georgia clubs whose membership lists include no blacks and few if any Jews. He said through a spokesman the decision was his own. [New York Times] A current-account deficit of $300 million in the United States balance of payments for the first nine months of the year was announced by the Department of Commerce, contrasting with a surplus built up in the first half of the year. Many economists welcomed this as helpful to the rest of the non-oil-producing world in diminishing their deficits in international trade. [New York Times] Stock prices pushed higher on a broad front, with Dow Jones closing up 6.15 points at 984.54. A third major bank, Chase Manhattan, lowered its prime rate to 6 percent. [New York Times] A suspension of licensing fees collected by the Federal Communications Commission, effective Jan. 1, was announced by the agency, pending study of a court ruling that all its fees since 1.970 have been improper. The F.C.C. acknowledged that it would have to make refunds for part of the fees, but was not sure whether this would affect the 7.5 million users of citizens band radios who pay $4 for their licenses. [New York Times] A balance of nearly $1 million in unspent campaign contributions is held by 50 members of the new Congress who received $3 million for this purpose although none of them faced a major-party opponent. They are apparently free to use it for any political or personal purpose. Most conspicuous among them is Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who raised $178,000 and still has $160,300 of it on hand. [New York Times] Allegations of a conspiracy involving high officials of the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation to fabricate and coordinate their statements on I.T.T.'s role in Chile at a 1973 Senate inquiry are being heard by a federal grand jury, Justice Department sources said. They added that the investigation is concentrating on Richard Helms, then Director of Central Intelligence, Harold Geneen, president of I.T.T., and John McCone, an I.T.T. director and former C.I.A. chief. [New York Times] The arrest in Madrid of Santiago Carrillo, leader of the Communist Party of Spain, who returned to the country without permission in February and has recently given several interviews, seemed likely to create an uproar adding to the government's difficulties. It had seemed inclined to wink at his presence, and rightists said it was tolerating the Communist Party. [New York Times] International lending rose to $78 billion this year compared with $61 billion in 1975, according to analysts at the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, largely because of current-account deficits of many countries. Another factor was that a number of debtor nations, such as Brazil and Mexico, now face the need to refinance maturing debt. [New York Times] Britain's Western trading partners agreed on mobilizing half of the supplemental credits under the General Agreement to Borrow in order to let the International Monetary Fund lend $3.9 billion to that country. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 984.54 (+6.15, +0.63%)
S&P Composite: 104.71 (+0.49, +0.47%)
Arms Index: 0.70

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	985	16.45
Declines	509	5.95
Unchanged	449	4.57
Total Volume		26.97

* 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 21, 1976	978.39	104.22	24.39
December 20, 1976	972.41	103.65	20.69
December 17, 1976	979.06	104.26	23.87
December 16, 1976	981.30	104.80	23.92
December 15, 1976	983.79	105.14	28.30
December 14, 1976	980.63	105.07	25.13
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