News stories from Tuesday March 18, 1975

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

It was estimated that 100,000 persons were streaming down the one remaining road from South Vietnam's Central Highlands to the safety of the seacoast. Behind them, Communist forces were poised to occupy the vast important area they had never before fully conquered. The exodus began with the fall of Ban Me Thuot but became a flood Sunday night after the Saigon government decided to evacuate its forces from the highlands. Its commanders were said to feel that this would give them a strategic reserve, ease supply problems and permit a credible defense of the heart of the country. But the psychological effect is incalculable. [New York Times] United States military sources in Washington believe that the North Vietnamese have entered the second phase of an offensive designed to cut South Vietnam in half. The North's deepest penetration appears to be east of Ban Me Thuot, where South Vietnamese forces were reported to have fallen back to within 60 miles of the coast, apparently hoping to hold Route 1, the main north-south artery. The sources said a successful drive to the coast would not necessarily wreck Saigon's plans to defend its northern provinces, since they have the ships and transport aircraft for supply and reinforcement there. [New York Times] The Senate voted to keep the oil depletion allowance in effect for all but a small number of the biggest oil companies. Pro-oil forces were firmly in control as the Senate voted 47 to 41 to amend the House tax-cut bill that repealed the allowance. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas sponsored it. [New York Times] The British government decided to recommend a vote to remain in the Common Market in a referendum next summer, but the cabinet was split on the issue. In a meeting preceding the announcement, seven of the 23 ministers called for withdrawal. Prime Minister Wilson said in the House of Commons he would allow the opposing ministers to speak out freely. [New York Times] The Central Intelligence Agency financed the construction of a multi-million-dollar deep-sea salvage vessel and used it in an unsuccessful effort to recover hydrogen-warhead missiles and codes from a sunken Soviet submarine in the Pacific Ocean, according to high government officials. The vessel was built for the C.I.A. by Howard Hughes. It recovered part of the submarine, but not the part containing the missiles or code room. [New York Times] The Federal Bureau of Investigation's internal record of harassment of the Socialist Workers party over a 10-year period was made public following a federal court order releasing 3,138 pages of documents to the party and its youth arm. The operation included efforts to have members dismissed from their jobs, the leaking of unsavory items about them to the press, and trying to start violence at demonstrations. [New York Times] The Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 decision extended to theatrical productions the kind of protection against advance censorship and prohibition held by newspapers, books and motion pictures. It found that a Chattanooga municipal theater exercised an unconstitutional prior restraint of freedom of speech in banning "Hair." [New York Times] Portugal's military rulers banned the center-right Christian Democratic party and two militant extreme left-wing groups from participation in the elections scheduled for next month, accusing them of employing and stirring violence and of showing "disrespect" for the program of the armed forces. A major effect of the decision was to strengthen the hand of the Communist party against strong rivals on the left among workers, peasants and students. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 779.41 (-7.12, -0.91%)
S&P Composite: 85.13 (-0.88, -1.02%)
Arms Index: 1.51

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	528	6.73
Declines	957	18.47
Unchanged	357	3.98
Total Volume		29.18

* 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*
March 17, 1975	786.53	86.01	26.78
March 14, 1975	773.47	84.76	24.84
March 13, 1975	762.98	83.74	18.62
March 12, 1975	763.69	83.59	21.56
March 11, 1975	770.89	84.36	31.28
March 10, 1975	776.13	84.95	25.89
March 7, 1975	770.10	84.30	25.93
March 6, 1975	761.81	83.69	21.78
March 5, 1975	752.82	82.90	24.12
March 4, 1975	757.74	83.58	34.10