News stories from Thursday October 31, 1974

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

Doctors in Long Beach, Calif., said that former President Nixon was "alert" and ''spent a more restful night." But Mr. Nixon's condition remained critical following complications that developed from surgery for phlebitis. Dr. John Lungren, Mr. Nixon's physician, said that "his spirits and mental attitude are excellent. He is alert, oriented to everything going on around him and cooperative." [New York Times] The administration launched an attack on high food prices, especially price gouging. An Agriculture Department report showed that raw farm prices increased 4%. Treasury Secretary William Simon spoke about this.Simon ordered public hearings on rising sugar prices. He also called for a full report regarding sagging farm prices and higher grocery bills. Simon stated that the spread between farm and retail prices is expected to increase 21%, and America cannot permit one part of the economy to be enriched at the expense of others. Simon predicted a reduction in foreign oil prices, and said he feels that economists will say the U.S. is in a recession. [CBS] The Civil Aeronautics Board authorized the nation's airlines to raise domestic air fares by 4 percent Nov. 15 and made permanent a 6 percent surcharge imposed on travelers last spring as an emergency measure to offset increased fuel bills. The surcharge had been scheduled to expire tonight. The agency's decision was attacked as inflationary and unwarranted by consumer spokesmen. [New York Times] New York City Controller Harrison Goldin, expressing "serious concern" over the widening gap between the city's spending and revenues, warned in his annual report on financial situation that the city cannot continue to close the gaps with ever larger and more expensive borrowings. Wall Street sources said that Mr. Goldin's concern grows from increasing reluctance of banking and brokerage syndicates to underwrite the city's bond and notes. [New York Times] About 75 civilians and policemen were believed to have been injured when, for the first time since the opposition to President Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam took to the street two months ago, confrontations between riot policemen and anti-government demonstrators turned violent. The police abandoned their policy of leniency and attacked the demonstrators in an outlying neighborhood of Saigon, inhabited by Roman Catholics who fled North Vietnam. [New York Times] Scientists in Asia are confident that rice harvests can increase faster than the needs of a rice-dependent population, which is expected to double by the year 2000. Their confidence is based on a revolution in rice-growing techniques that continue to spread in Asia, offering what they see as the only way of escape from an agriculture of mere survival. Their optimism, however, is questioned by observers of the rice-growing tropics. [New York Times] Rumors of the death of Liu Shao-chi, who was purged as China's chief of state during the Cultural Revolution, have been confirmed by a statement in the English-language edition of a Chinese Communist paper in Hong Kong to the effect that Liu Shao-chi was "dead physically as well as politically." No details of his death were given. [New York Times] At stake at a trial in Bordeaux, France, is international confidence in French wines. The mystique surrounding the wines of France has been partly stripped away by testimony of experts in a sensational trial involving four million bottles labeled as red Bordeaux. There are charges of doctoring wine and falsifying documents. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 665.52 (-7.51, -1.12%)
S&P Composite: 73.90 (-0.41, -0.55%)
Arms Index: 1.01

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	699	7.98
Declines	685	7.87
Unchanged	406	2.99
Total Volume		18.84

* 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*
October 30, 1974	673.03	74.31	20.13
October 29, 1974	659.34	72.83	15.61
October 28, 1974	633.84	70.09	10.54
October 25, 1974	636.19	70.12	12.65
October 24, 1974	636.26	70.22	14.91
October 23, 1974	645.03	71.03	14.20
October 22, 1974	662.86	73.13	18.93
October 21, 1974	669.82	73.50	14.50
October 18, 1974	654.88	72.28	16.46
October 17, 1974	651.44	71.17	14.47