SEC to Decide Today Whether to Extend Emergency Measures

Temporary rules designed to stem stock market declines may be extended for another week as the Securities and Exchange Commission plans to decide today whether to keep the emergency measures in place.

“They’ve had a very positive effect without unduly influencing the market,” SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt said in an interview Thursday after testifying before the Senate Banking Committee.

The five-day emergency rules, which took effect Monday, let public companies repurchase their stock without following usual volume or timing limits. The SEC, under emergency authority granted by Congress, can extend the rules for a maximum of five more days.

Companies on Monday bought about 10 times the number of shares that are repurchased on a typical day, Pitt said.

The SEC adopted the rules Sept. 14 in an effort to keep stocks from plummeting when U.S. markets opened after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which closed markets for four days.

Stocks still have fallen all week, but the damage might have been worse without the rules, analysts said.

“Anything that helps inspire confidence in the markets is beneficial in this environment,” said Andrew Madoff, head of Nasdaq trading at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.

General Electric Co., Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. are among more than 75 companies that have announced share buyback plans since the attacks.