Ticker Talk

In a move aimed at helping investors better evaluate the performance of their mutual funds, Vanguard Group is starting to publish the after-tax returns for 47 of its stock and balanced funds. The nation’s second-largest mutual fund firm is the first fund company to disclose after-tax returns on a broad range of mutual funds. The information debuts in Vanguard’s U.S. Growth Fund and its International Growth Fund’s 1999 annual reports being mailed to shareholders this week, the company said Monday. . . . Nasdaq on Monday launched OptiMark, a system that allows big investors to anonymously trade directly with each other. The system, run by Jersey City, N.J.-based OptiMark Technologies and already in use on the Pacific Exchange, can be used to trade 10 Nasdaq stocks currently, including Dell Computer Corp. and Starbucks Corp.