Ticker Talk

On the heels of a hit debut by online music seller Musicmaker.com Inc., shares of Redwood City, Calif.-based Liquid Audio Inc. (ticker symbol: LQID) were priced at $15 on Thursday, well above the expected $10-to-$12 range. The company, which offers Internet music downloads, raised $63 million in a deal lead-managed by Lehman Bros. Musicmaker stock rose 71% in its first trading day Wednesday. . . . Standard & Poor’s Corp. said San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc., whose shares have zoomed 449% this year, will replace Transamerica Corp. in the blue-chip S&P; 500 index. Compass Bancshares will replace Qualcomm in the S&P; mid-cap 400 index. . . . After weeks of speculation, Frank Russell Co. released the list of small companies that will make up its Russell 2,000 index for the coming year, knocking out 375 firms that grew too large over the last year. The new list can be found online at https://www.russell.com.