News stories from Monday March 24, 1975
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Ford ordered a total re-examination of United States policy toward the Middle East following the collapse of Secretary of State Kissinger's efforts to attain a new agreement between Egypt and Israel. The White House and the State Department said the policy review would include "all aspects and all countries." Several congressional leaders who attended a briefing held by President Ford and Mr. Kissinger said later they had the impression that a principal objective of the study would be to re-evaluate United States policy toward Israel. [New York Times]
- Israeli government officials responded bitterly to the White House announcement of a reassessment of United States policy on the Middle East. The statement's significance was not immediately clear in Jerusalem, but it tended to confirm the Israelis' worst fears that Washington would place the major blame on Israel for the breakdown of the mediation efforts for a new Sinai agreement between Israel and Egypt. [New York Times]
- American officials in Phnom Penh, in what they conceded was a "calculated gamble," ordered the resumption of the United States airlift into besieged Pochentang Airport, the last supply link open to the Cambodian capital. The insurgents kept up their attack on the airport area. While planes landed through the day, rockets fell on the airport, many near the planes as they were being unloaded. The airlift was stopped Saturday when rockets hit two planes. [New York Times]
- Da Nang, South Vietnam's second largest city, was the only reasonably secure base of government authority in the northern two-thirds of South Vietnam, and refugees were converging on it. Communist forces, which during the past week surrounded Hue to the northwest and occupied the western flank of the road leading south, were evidently meeting little opposition. [New York Times]
- With shells falling heavily on the former imperial capital of Hue and military units having nearly completed the evacuation from the city by sea, the fall of Hue was expected imminently. Towns, including provincial capitals all along the northern coast of South Vietnam, were falling, leaving only Da Nang as an enclave of government authority. [New York Times]
- Administration officials said that the potential budget deficit for the fiscal year 1976 had reached the $100 billion level and was still rising under the tax reduction and spending proposals being considered by Congress. The $100 billion would be nearly twice the $51.9 billion deficit projected by President Ford in his budget message two months ago. [New York Times]
- The New York stock market had its largest loss in more than four months as prices tumbled in reaction to the breakdown of Secretary of State Kissinger's negotiations for a Middle East peace settlement. The selloff in accelerated trading affected the entire market, except for gold mining issues, which generally run against the market trend. Losses of a point or more were not unusual. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 743.43 (-19.63, -2.57%)
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 21, 1975 | 763.06 | 83.39 | 15.94 |
| March 20, 1975 | 764.00 | 83.61 | 20.96 |
| March 19, 1975 | 769.48 | 84.34 | 19.03 |
| March 18, 1975 | 779.41 | 85.13 | 29.16 |
| 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 |