News stories from Friday February 20, 1976

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

The Labor Department said that the nation's inflation rate moderated slightly more in January and the Consumer Price Index, after adjustment for normal seasonal changes in some prices, rose by four-tenths of 1 percent. A decline in meat and gasoline prices was partly offset by higher postal rates and automobile insurance costs. The index had risen on the average by six-tenths of 1 percent in the three preceding months. On an unadjusted basis -- the prices consumers actually paid last month -- the index rose only two-tenths of 1 percent, the smallest monthly increase in two and a half years. [New York Times] Wall Street had the busiest day in its history -- again. Trading volume totaled 44.5 million shares, breaking the record set only on Thursday, and stock prices rose to a three-year high. Brokers attributed the upsurge in part to growing speculation by individual investors. [New York Times] Patricia Hearst's defense produced a man from jail to tell a story that supported her contention that she had been coerced into helping with the bank robbery for which she is on trial in San Francisco. The witness, Ulysses Hall, said he had known Donald Defreeze, leader of the group that abducted Miss Hearst, when both had been prisoners together. [New York Times] Former President Nixon's departure on a visit to China has forced to the surface an awkward issue that President Ford had been hoping to avoid in his close and important contest with Ronald Reagan in the New Hampshire primary. Mr. Ford's campaign aides fear that Mr. Nixon's trip to China has revived lingering questions and resentment about Mr. Ford's pardon of Mr. Nixon 18 months ago and may affect the voting in the primary. [New York Times] Hamilton Bancshares Inc., a major regional holding company with banking interests in Tennessee and Georgia, filed for voluntary bankruptcy in Federal District Court in Chattanooga. Hamilton also filed bankruptcy petitions for three of its non-bank subsidiaries, but it emphasized that none of its remaining 10 bank subsidiaries or its other non-bank subsidiaries was in danger. The bankruptcy filings were made five days after Hamilton Bancshares' principal subsidiary, the Hamilton National Bank of Chattanooga, was declared insolvent by the Commissioner of the Currency. This was the third largest bank failure in the country's history. [New York Times] The British government has offered to join negotiations between whites and blacks in Rhodesia to help prevent the spread of guerrilla warfare in southern Africa. Foreign Secretary James Callaghan said in a statement that he had sent a message to Prime Minister Ian Smith of Rhodesia a few days ago, offering diplomatic assistance. In Rhodesia, Mr. Smith said that he had received Mr. Callaghan's message, and suggested that British intervention might give new life to the talks that he has been having with Joshua Nkomo, Rhodesia's leading nationalist. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 987.80 (+12.04, +1.23%)
S&P Composite: 102.10 (+0.69, +0.68%)
Arms Index: 0.94

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,005	24.86
Declines	596	13.79
Unchanged	313	5.86
Total Volume		44.51

* 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*
February 19, 1976	975.76	101.41	39.21
February 18, 1976	960.09	99.85	29.90
February 17, 1976	950.57	99.05	25.46
February 13, 1976	958.36	99.67	23.87
February 12, 1976	966.78	100.25	28.61
February 11, 1976	971.90	100.77	32.30
February 10, 1976	968.75	100.47	27.66
February 9, 1976	957.18	99.62	25.34
February 6, 1976	954.90	99.46	27.36
February 5, 1976	964.81	100.39	33.78