News stories from Thursday March 6, 1975

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

President Ford appealed to Congress in a nationally televised news conference to provide additional military assistance to Cambodia. He said "time was running out" and that aid was necessary to assure the survival of the Cambodian government and to permit a negotiated settlement of the war. It was apparent that Mr. Ford was not easing his pressure on Congress, despite a message conveyed to him personally this morning by Senator Hubert Humphrey that Congress would not approve any of the $222 million in additional aid requested by the administration. [New York Times] The United States Embassy in Phnom Penh, authoritative sources said, believes that the best that can be hoped for in Cambodia is little more than a negotiated surrender in which the only subjects open for discussion would be the details, humaneness and orderliness of the takeover by the insurgents. This assessment, which differs from the Ford administration's views, is shared by virtually the entire diplomatic community in Phnom Penh. [New York Times] President Ford said in his nationally televised news conference that the tax-cut bill passed by the House, giving substantial tax relief to low and middle-income taxpayers, was weighted too heavily in their favor and did not sufficiently benefit those who might spend the money more readily. He said he was confident that the economy would improve before the end of the year, but said he thought additional help for the unemployed was needed. [New York Times] The Labor Department reported that the Wholesale Price Index declined for the third consecutive month in February, providing further evidence that while the recession deepens, inflation is abating. The index declined by eight-tenths of 1 percent after adjustment for normal seasonal changes in some prices, and indicated that there would be some improvement in the rate of inflation at the consumer level. [New York Times] An offer to negotiate with industrial nations on the "stabilization" of oil prices was made by the oil-exporting countries, but they said the agenda could not be limited to energy prices. The international conference they envision would have to deal with issues of raw materials, monetary relations and the development of poorer nations, they said in Algiers at the close of the first meeting of the sovereigns and chiefs of state of the 13-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. [New York Times] The major military antagonists of the Persian Gulf area, Iran and Iraq, announced in Algiers that they had agreed to settle their border dispute and end subversive infiltrations from either side. Both nations are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The Persian Gulf region, they said, should be kept "free of all foreign influence." [New York Times] An Israeli military spokesman announced that the navy had captured a ship that had carried the two smaller boats in which eight Palestinian guerrillas landed in Tel Aviv Wednesday night before seizing a shorefront hotel. The spokesman identified the captured ship only as a "Fatah ship." Al Fatah, the major Palestinian guerrilla group, has claimed responsibility for the raid on the hotel. [New York Times] Because Export-Import Bank loans to the Soviet Union have been restricted, the Bank of America has offered to form a banking syndicate to lend $500 million to the Russians to finance imports from the United States. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 761.81 (+8.99, +1.19%)
S&P Composite: 83.69 (+0.79, +0.95%)
Arms Index: 0.55

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	905	14.72
Declines	486	4.38
Unchanged	387	2.68
Total Volume		21.78

* 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*
March 5, 1975	752.82	82.90	24.12
March 4, 1975	757.74	83.58	34.10
March 3, 1975	753.13	83.03	24.10
February 28, 1975	739.05	81.59	17.56
February 27, 1975	731.15	80.77	16.43
February 26, 1975	728.10	80.37	18.79
February 25, 1975	719.18	79.53	20.91
February 24, 1975	736.94	81.44	19.15
February 21, 1975	749.77	82.62	24.44
February 20, 1975	745.38	82.21	22.26