News stories from Wednesday May 28, 1975

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

Arriving in Brussels for a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, President Ford told an airport welcoming crowd, "Our commitment to this alliance will not falter." The President was greeted by King Baudouin of the Belgians and Joseph Luns, the alliance's secretary general. Mr. Ford said NATO has the support of the American people and Congress. [New York Times] The United States Postal Service, which had been planning to meet a deficit by raising the price of first class mail to 13 cents, received a stunning surprise in Washington when Seymour Wenner, an administrative law judge, recommended that first class postage be reduced from 10 to 8 cents an ounce. Mr. Wenner's recommendation must be approved by the Postal Rate Commission and is far from final, but the Postal Service now fears that, at best, its scheduled rate increase has been set back indefinitely. [New York Times] President Ford's imposition of an additional $1-a-barrel import fee on oil will mean only about $1 billion "taken back" by the government in the last seven months of this year of the $23 billion in tax cuts enacted by Congress to stimulate the economy, according to government economic officials. They say the impact on the price level this year will be small. The $1-a-barrel tariff in-crease will add 1.5 cents a gallon to the price of retail gasoline and the President's proposal for decontrol of the price of domestically produced crude oil would add two cents more a gallon at the pump.President Ford's new oil import fee could mean increased costs of living to New York area residents, including about $10 a year for the average Consolidated Edison electricity consumer, $11.25 for the average motorist and $22.50 for the average one-family home heated by oil. The city would pay $1,875,000 more for 100 million gallons of fuel oil consumed in hospitals and public buildings and 25 million gallons of gasoline for nontransit vehicles. [New York Times] Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz announced in Washington that the investigation of alleged corruption in the handling of grain shipments had spread to "every major grain port in the country" and said that evidence showed that organized crime was involved. Beside Gulf Coast ports, those being investigated include Baltimore, Norfolk, Portland, Ore., and Seattle. [New York Times] Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned his fellow Western ministers in Paris that "economic issues are turning into central political issues," in announcing a series of steps to be taken by the United States to ease the plight of poorer countries of the world. He told the delegates at the 24-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that they must work together to restore sustained and stable economic growth. But, he added, this in an increasingly interdependent world, would not be enough to assure prosperity. [New York Times] Administration officials say that China has indicated strongly in recent weeks that she has cautioned North Korea against launching a military attack against South Korea. State Department officials said the policy of restraint was made known by public statements and comments by Chinese officials and through conversations with American officials. Although not directly stating that they had sought to persuade the North Koreans not to start a war, the Chinese were said to have underscored their support for "peaceful reunification" of Korea and for a continued American presence in Asia to counter the Russians. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 817.04 (-9.07, -1.10%)
S&P Composite: 89.71 (-0.63, -0.70%)
Arms Index: 1.04

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	575	7.62
Declines	817	11.29
Unchanged	425	2.95
Total Volume		21.86

* 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*
May 27, 1975	826.11	90.34	17.05
May 23, 1975	831.90	90.58	17.87
May 22, 1975	818.91	89.39	17.61
May 21, 1975	818.68	89.06	17.64
May 20, 1975	830.49	90.07	18.31
May 19, 1975	837.69	90.53	17.87
May 16, 1975	837.61	90.43	16.63
May 15, 1975	848.80	91.41	27.69
May 14, 1975	858.73	92.27	29.05
May 13, 1975	850.13	91.58	24.95