News stories from Tuesday May 7, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- James St. Clair, President Nixon's chief attorney, announced that the President had decided not to turn over further Watergate tapes to the House Judiciary Committee or to special prosecutor Leon Jaworski. The surprise announcement, at a late afternoon news conference, was made soon after the President's aides had indicated Mr. Nixon might once again back down in the face of pressure to provide more material. [New York Times]
- Fred Buzhardt, who is also an attorney for President Nixon, invoked executive privilege and the attorney-client privilege before the Senate Watergate committee but averted an all-out confrontation by answering a series of questions about a $100,000 campaign contribution from Howard Hughes. He reversed, to a degree at least, the stand taken last week by Gen. Alexander Haig, the White House chief of staff, who flatly refused to answer any of the committee's questions about the contribution. [New York Times]
- Congressional investigations of the relations between the Nixon administration and the Internal Revenue Service have shifted their focus to the question of the possibly illegal use of tax returns as a source of politically valuable information for the White House. [New York Times]
- John Glenn, a former astronaut, defeated Senator Howard Metzenbaum for the Democratic nomination to the Senate seat vacated by William Saxbe, a Republican who is now the Attorney General. [New York Times]
- The House rejected an attempt to pull the American system of weights and measures into the 19th century by again defeating legislation that would adapt the metric system -- a bill stalled in Congress for over 100 years. Failure to pass the metric conversion bill, by a vote of 240 to 153, occurred the day before the Department of Agriculture will start using the global metric standard of measurements in its crop reports. [New York Times]
- The League of Women Voters agreed to end its long-standing of barring full membership to men. The vote, by a margin of better than 2 to 1, came after a long and often bitter debate over whether women have enough self-confidence to work equally with men. [New York Times]
- In a national atmosphere of shock over the unexpected resignation of Chancellor Willy Brandt Monday night, the governing Social Democratic party of West Germany named Finance Minister Helmut Schmidt to succeed him. Mr. Brandt's decision appeared to be final, but for the time being, he said, he will not resign as head of the party. [New York Times]
- The Soviet Union pledged $600 million in credits to help Argentina double her power-generating capacity by the end of 1977. The Soviet aid, still not officially announced, was disclosed privately by senior Argentine officials on an economic mission to Moscow. It was seen as a bid to gain a political foothold in Argentina. [New York Times]
- Both of Canada's principal opposition parties introduced motions of no-confidence in the minority Liberal party government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau because of its budget policies. Their action was generally expected to topple the Trudeau government. [New York Times]
- Secretary of State Kissinger received guarded Soviet support in Cyprus for his efforts to achieve a troop separation agreement between Israel and Syria. He then returned to Jerusalem and was given new Israeli proposals for the troop separation on the Golan Heights. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 847.15 (+2.27, +0.27%)
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* |
| May 6, 1974 | 844.88 | 91.12 | 9.45 |
| May 3, 1974 | 845.90 | 91.29 | 11.08 |
| May 2, 1974 | 851.06 | 92.09 | 13.62 |
| May 1, 1974 | 853.88 | 92.22 | 15.12 |
| April 30, 1974 | 836.75 | 90.31 | 10.98 |
| April 29, 1974 | 835.42 | 90.00 | 10.17 |
| April 26, 1974 | 834.64 | 90.18 | 13.25 |
| April 25, 1974 | 827.68 | 89.57 | 15.87 |
| April 24, 1974 | 832.37 | 90.30 | 16.01 |
| April 23, 1974 | 845.98 | 91.81 | 14.11 |