News stories from Friday December 12, 1975

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

Sara Jane Moore pleaded guilty to a charge of having attempted to kill President Ford in San Francisco last Sept. 22, Miss Moore, who has a history of mental illness going back 26 years -- she is 45 years old -- read a 500-word statement in San Francisco's Federal Court in which she entered her guilty plea and which she began by declaring herself mentally sound now and on the day she allegedly tried to shoot Mr. Ford. Judge Samuel Conti declined to accept Miss Moore's plea immediately and continued the hearing until Monday, giving her time to change her mind. [New York Times] Congress has completed the first cautious but successful steps toward gaining control of federal spending, with the Senate and the House agreeing for the first time on an overall ceiling for the budget in the current fiscal year and committing themselves to try to legislate within that limit. The House voted 189 to 187 to limit spending to $374.9 billion, leaving a deficit of $74.1 billion. The Senate approved these limits on Thursday by a vote of 73 to 19. The President's approval is not required. [New York Times] President Ford signed legislation repealing the "fair trade" laws, that for nearly 40 years have permitted manufacturers to set their own retail prices on many consumer products. The repeal will go into effect in 90 days, and, if economists who have long opposed fair trade laws are correct, should lower prices in the 21 states that still have fair trade laws. [New York Times] Members of Portugal's armed forces, which have dominated the nation's political life since the April 25 revolution last year, will no longer be permitted to participate in politics. The ban was announced by the ruling military Council of the Revolution, which has undertaken a major reorganization of the armed forces, with an emphasis on discipline. At the same time, the council decided to begin talks with the principal political parties for revision of the pact that gave all basic political power to the armed forces for the next three to five years. [New York Times] A United States proposal for the withdrawal of 1,000 American tactical nuclear weapons from Western Europe in exchange for the retirement from Central Europe of a Soviet army of about 1,700 tanks and 65,000 men was adopted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The proposal will be submitted to the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies on Tuesday, two days before the Conference on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions adjourns in Vienna. Secretary of State Kissinger formulated the offer last summer. [New York Times] The British government has apparently decided to spend almost $400 million in the next four years to assure the continued operation of the Chrysler Corporation's factories in Britain. The decision, reportedly made following a cabinet meeting, would mark a complete reversal of the government's steadfast refusal to Chrysler's demand for aid. A few Labor Party leaders and many opposition Conservatives were amazed when they heard the news. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 832.81 (+0.08, +0.01%)
S&P Composite: 87.83 (+0.03, +0.03%)
Arms Index: 0.95

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	581	4.83
Declines	739	5.82
Unchanged	521	2.45
Total Volume		13.10

* 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*
December 11, 1975	832.73	87.80	15.30
December 10, 1975	833.99	88.08	15.68
December 9, 1975	824.15	87.30	16.04
December 8, 1975	821.63	87.07	14.15
December 5, 1975	818.80	86.82	14.05
December 4, 1975	829.11	87.84	16.38
December 3, 1975	825.49	87.60	21.32
December 2, 1975	843.20	89.33	17.93
December 1, 1975	856.34	90.57	16.05
November 28, 1975	860.67	91.24	12.87