News stories from Thursday August 12, 1976

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

The Republican Platform Committee, in an emotional battle that could set up the party's first convention floor fight, voted last night, 51 to 47, to endorse the equal rights amendment. The endorsement of the proposed constitutional amendment, which has been backed by Republican platforms since 1940, came shortly after the Platform Committee rejected, by a vote of 59 to 31, an effort to put the party on record against the proposed amendments. [New York Times] New York Republican leaders reacted angrily to conservative efforts to promote Senator James Buckley for the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention next week, They said that it was essentially a "stop Ford" move, This was denied by Senator Buckley. It was believed that the move for Mr. Buckley would at least slow President Ford's momentum and possibly prevent him from getting a first-ballot nomination, and that Ronald Reagan would benefit at least initially from this strategy. Mr. Buckley has not publicly supported either President Ford or Mr. Reagan, but he has been an outspoken admirer of Mr. Reagan and a frequent critic of the President. [New York Times] The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta said that 17 metals, including mercury and arsenic, had been excluded as possible causes of the mysterious legionnaire's disease that has killed 27 persons in Pennsylvania. The center also said that tests for one of the chemicals still under suspicion, nickel carbonyl, were declared invalid because of contamination and will have to be repeated before a definite conclusion could be made. [New York Times] Wholesale prices rose only three-tenths of 1 percent in July, their smallest rise since March, mainly because of a decline in prices of farm products, processed foods and feeds. But other aspects of the Labor Department's Wholesale Price Index contained warnings that the inflation rate might worsen somewhat in the future. [New York Times] After five days of intensive talks in Washington, it was announced that the United Rubber Workers and the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the companies struck by 60,000 rubber workers last April, had reached an "understanding on basic economic issues." Sources close to the negotiations said that the total wage and benefit package was about 36 percent over three years. It was expected to provide the basis for a settlement with the other companies. [New York Times] Right-wing Christians in Lebanon announced that they had captured the Palestinian camp of Tell Zaatar. They had besieged the camp since mid-June. A left-wing radio reported Palestinians as having said that hand-to-hand fighting was still going on inside the camp, and witnesses said that thousands of civilians were streaming out of Tell Zaatar and surrendering to right-wing forces. The civilians were mostly women, children and old men. Few young men had apparently survived. Witnesses said that they had seen the bodies of 10 youths at the entrance to the camp. [New York Times] The battle between policemen and stone-throwing demonstrators continued in Cape Town's black townships. At least 27 persons died in two days of the most violent confrontations since anti-government rioting broke out two months ago. The demonstrators, mostly students, marched to the boundaries of the townships, Langa, Nyanga and Guguletu, which are close to one another in the southeastern suburbs of Cape Town. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 987.12 (+0.33, +0.03%)
S&P Composite: 104.22 (+0.16, +0.15%)
Arms Index: 0.80

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	628	6.71
Declines	722	6.18
Unchanged	491	2.67
Total Volume		15.56

* 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*
August 11, 1976	986.79	104.06	18.71
August 10, 1976	993.43	104.41	16.69
August 9, 1976	983.46	103.49	11.70
August 6, 1976	986.00	103.79	13.93
August 5, 1976	986.68	103.85	15.53
August 4, 1976	992.28	104.43	20.65
August 3, 1976	990.33	104.14	18.50
August 2, 1976	982.26	103.19	13.87
July 30, 1976	984.64	103.44	14.83
July 29, 1976	979.29	102.93	13.33