News stories from Friday May 30, 1975

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

Revised projections for the United States economy for 1976 and for the rest of this decade that were a little less gloomy than those issued last February were published by the administration. But it was still estimated that unemployment would average 7.9 percent of the labor force in 1976, an election year, despite an economic growth rate of 6.3 percent projected for next year. The administration also issued revised budget projections for fiscal year 1976, estimating a deficit of $59.9 billion. High officials, however, conceded that the figures were essentially meaningless for a variety of reasons. [New York Times] The Agriculture Department reported that prices farmers receive for raw agricultural products climbed 5 percent from April 15 to May 15, the second consecutive monthly increase. The department's Crop Reporting Board said that higher prices for cattle, hogs, cotton, apples and calves contributed most to the increase. [New York Times] Bankers who, with investors, were members of an advisory group to the New York City Controller, expressed alarm over the city's financial problems as far back as April, 1974, and in several subsequent meetings with Mayor Beame sought to convince him of the gravity of the situation. Confidential minutes of the meetings show strong differences of opinion between the Mayor and the bankers, especially over the issue of deficit financing. Mr. Beame said three times that it was the obligation of the bankers to "sell the city to the rest of the country." [New York Times] At the conclusion of the meeting of the heads of state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels, President Ford said he found that the Atlantic allies consider the United States commitment "firm and vigorous," despite what he called recent "traumatic experiences" in Indochina. Mr. Ford told a news conference that "many allies stressed that they did not feel the need of any special American reassurance" and that "their confidence is fully justified." [New York Times] Top officials throughout the Laotian administration in Vientiane are resigning under pressure of demonstrators as the Communist-led Pathet Lao increasingly solidify their control over the government. The forced resignations were described as "virtual purges" by many persons inside and outside the government. [New York Times] Portugal's leftist military rulers and the strong Socialist party reached an agreement that could ease tensions threatening the provisional government. The move was seen in Lisbon as further evidence that the armed forces were retreating from the brink of radical solutions to political and economic problems. A statement issued later said the military recognized that there were "distortions" in the political structure. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 832.29 (+17.29, +2.12%)
S&P Composite: 91.15 (+1.47, +1.64%)
Arms Index: 0.40

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,143	18.49
Declines	336	2.18
Unchanged	345	2.00
Total Volume		22.67

* 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*
May 29, 1975	815.00	89.68	18.57
May 28, 1975	817.04	89.71	21.85
May 27, 1975	826.11	90.34	17.05
May 23, 1975	831.90	90.58	17.87
May 22, 1975	818.91	89.39	17.61
May 21, 1975	818.68	89.06	17.64
May 20, 1975	830.49	90.07	18.31
May 19, 1975	837.69	90.53	17.87
May 16, 1975	837.61	90.43	16.63
May 15, 1975	848.80	91.41	27.69