SEC Censures Parent of Nasdaq

The Securities and Exchange Commission came down hard Thursday on the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, the parent of the Nasdaq Stock Market, for allegedly looking the other way as big Wall Street firms colluded to boost profits at the expense of customers. Capping a 19-month investigation of the nation’s busiest stock market, the agency simultaneously announced a settlement in which the NASD neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. D1