News stories from Wednesday April 17, 1974

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

President Nixon named William Simon to succeed George Shultz as Secretary of the Treasury, but not as overall director of economic policy for the administration. Instead, a presidential spokesman said, Mr. Nixon will succeed Shultz as chairman of the Council on Economic Policy and will be more active in economic affairs. [New York Times] The White House said that President Nixon is not dismayed by Republican James Sparling's loss to Democrat William Traxler in Michigan's 8th district special election. The district had elected Republicans for the past four decades. Sparling stated that he's proud Nixon came to campaign for him. Michigan Republican party chair William McLaughlin declared that it will be a tough year ahead, and another Republican spokesman lamented that Republicans cannot win in the year of Watergate. A Republican National Committee official said the the party didn't expect to win this seat, though politcal adviser Dean Burch noted that Nixon visit raised Sparling's standing from 9 points behind to 2 points -- the President helped him. Vice President Gerald Ford blamed organized labor for the defeat. Another special Congressional election will take place in San Francisco on June 4. [CBS] Former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans took the witness stand in his own defense and swore that the reason he kept Robert Vesco's $200,000 cash contribution to the Nixon re-election campaign secret was Mr. Vesco's constitutional right of privacy. Mr. Stans denied that the money was a payoff or that there was any quid pro quo arrangement with Mr. Vesco, who has been accused of making the contribution in return for quashing a federal investigation into his financial dealings. [New York Times] The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly considering possible fraud charges growing out of the financial collapse of the Penn Central railroad nearly four years ago. Government sources said action in the case was imminent, but did not specify what companies or individuals might be charged in the case. [New York Times] The American Express Company said it had agreed to allow merchants honoring its credit cards to offer discounts to customers who pay cash for purchases. Claiming a ''tremendous victory," Consumers Union said it would drop an antitrust suit against American Express as a result of the company's action. [New York Times] Attorney General William Saxbe said he did not regard Patricia Hearst as a "reluctant participant" in Monday's San Francisco bank robbery, but a "fugitive" who is a part of a group of "common criminals." In his weekly news briefing, Mr. Saxbe said he was not relaying his personal view to the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- which said it was proceeding on the possibility that Miss Hearst had been forced to cooperate in the robbery. [New York Times] The Supreme Court ruled that parents of three slain Kent State students may sue the Governor of Ohio and National Guard officers for damages growing out of the 1970 campus protests. The Court, which did not pass on the merits of such a damage suit, overruled two lower courts in holding that state officials are not immune from damage suits that are based on charges of a violation of civil rights. [New York Times] Nelson Shields, 23, was shot and killed on a San Francisco street. He is the twelfth victim of the city's "zebra" killings. The victims have all been white, the killer black. No motive has been established for the murders. [CBS] Israeli bulldozers were at work on the southwestern upper flank of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights as Syrian earth-moving equipment pushed an opposing track up the strategic mountain's eastern slopes. Both sides consider the mountain a crucial bargaining card in the forthcoming talks on a separation of forces. While Israel claimed an initial victory by establishing a small outpost at the summit, the Syrians seem determined to seize it. [New York Times] In Jerusalem, Gen. Ariel Sharon, a hero of the October war and an opposition member of Parliament, charged that the Israeli defense establishment had been negligent in not thwarting an Arab raid that killed 18 Israelis last week. [New York Times] President Anwar Sadat of Egypt has reaffirmed his intention of working through the United States in seeking a settlement of the Middle East conflict and has made it clear that in his opinion the Soviet Union has been relegated to a secondary diplomatic role. In remarks reported in Egyptian newspapers, Mr. Sadat revealed that he had come close to renouncing the Soviet-Egyptian friendship treaty because of his disenchantment with Moscow. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 867.41 (+6.18, +0.72%)
S&P Composite: 94.36 (+0.70, +0.75%)
Arms Index: 0.82

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	863	8.00
Declines	528	4.03
Unchanged	407	2.00
Total Volume		14.03

* 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*
April 16, 1974	861.23	93.66	14.53
April 15, 1974	843.79	92.05	10.13
April 11, 1974	844.81	92.12	9.97
April 10, 1974	843.71	92.40	11.16
April 9, 1974	846.84	92.61	11.33
April 8, 1974	839.96	92.03	10.74
April 5, 1974	847.54	93.01	11.67
April 4, 1974	858.89	94.33	11.65
April 3, 1974	858.03	94.33	11.50
April 2, 1974	846.61	93.35	12.01