Knight Trading Loses Two Execs, Plans Cuts

Knight Trading Group shares tumbled 16% early Thursday after the biggest Nasdaq market middleman said that two senior executives quit and that it may have to fire as much as 6% of its work force.

The stock (ticker symbol: NITE) recovered to close off 2 cents at $9.95, still its lowest since 1998.

Knight, hurt by slower trading and by shrinking stock bid-asked price spreads in the wake of U.S. markets’ shift from fractional pricing to decimal pricing this year, may eliminate 30 to 40 jobs to help reduce costs, said Chief Executive Kenneth Pasternak.

The company said John Hewitt, head of the firm’s market-making business, and David Shpilberg, head of technology, left to pursue other interests.