SECURITIES

Panel Lets Nasdaq Suit Stay Separate: The federal judicial panel ruled late last week that an investors class-action lawsuit against three big Nasdaq dealers may continue as a separate case in federal court in New Jersey. The panel rejected a request by the dealers--Merrill Lynch, PaineWebber and Dean Witter Reynolds--to merge the case with a bigger suit in federal court in Manhattan pending against them and 30 other dealers. The panel agreed with arguments that the legal issues in the two cases are distinct. The New Jersey case is based on a claim that the dealers failed to get small investors the best available prices for Nasdaq stocks. The New York case alleges violations of antitrust laws by dealers. Defendants in both cases have denied any wrongdoing.