Ticker Talk: News and Notes
* The Nasdaq Stock Market may extend trading hours to 9 p.m. Eastern time as early as this summer, a spokesman for the screen-based market said Monday. Nasdaq trading hours for most stocks now start at 9:30 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. EST. Nasdaq’s governing body formed a subcommittee last week that will create a proposal for expanded hours. The committee is scheduled to submit the proposal May 27 to the board of Nasdaq’s parent, the National Assn. of Securities Dealers. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would also have to sign off on extended hours.
* U.S. options exchanges face an inquiry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has asked the exchanges for details about how they quote and sell stock options, exchange officials said Monday. The SEC’s probe of options-market practices is broader than a Justice Department antitrust investigation of whether the exchanges have avoided competition by listing options on one exchange, said Meyer S. Frucher, chairman of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.
* From the Department of Iffy Timing: As U.S. investors were bidding down Internet stocks, Bid.Com International Inc., a Canadian online auction operator, said Monday it received Nasdaq approval to begin trading today on the U.S. market. “We are a U.S. story,” said Paul Godin, Bid.Com’s chairman, chief executive and co-founder. “Ninety percent of our revenue comes from the U.S. marketplace in U.S. dollars.” The Mississauga-based company has been listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange since 1997 and will continue to trade on TSE after it’s listed on Nasdaq.
