New York Stock Exchange

As Wall Street yo-yoed through another day of breathless ups and downs, a pall of dejection and despair hung over the august New York Stock Exchange, the epicenter of the country's economic malaise. Harried traders frantically tried to recover from a week of spiraling losses, emerging grim-faced outside the exchange's imposing marble facade to puff on cigarettes. The sense of powerlessness was palpable. "It's hell -- what do you think?"

Just after 9 a.m. Wednesday, the glass doors on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange burst open, and the symphony begins. "How's Cisco?" a trader shouts. "What are you saying on Goldman?" yells another. "Let's go! Let's go!" Feet shuffle, fans whoosh, televisions blare, cameras click, electronic devices chime like slot machines. No one knows what today will bring.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will review a decision that allows markets such as the New York Stock Exchange to charge fees for stock price information, granting a request by opponents of the fees such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. The SEC said it would examine its October decision to let NYSE Group Inc.'s Arca electronic market charge for market data that it had previously provided for free.

A merger of regulatory operations for the New York Stock Exchange and the NASD can proceed only if most members on the combined governing board are independent of the industry, Securities and Exchange Commissioner Annette Nazareth said Thursday. "The commission is keenly interested in having effective board governance and having independent board directors," Nazareth said in an interview.

An effort to consolidate industry self-regulation of U.S. securities brokers and dealers moved a step closer Sunday, the NASD said. Members of the NASD, formerly known as the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, approved bylaw changes needed to combine with NYSE Group Inc. and form one organization to regulate securities brokers and dealers. Consolidating the self-regulatory functions of the NASD and NYSE Group into one entity will help end duplication, reduce costs and make U.S.

Tokyo Stock Exchange President Taizo Nishimuro said Tuesday that negotiations for an alliance with the New York Stock Exchange were "very close" to completion and that he expected an announcement to be made as early as today. Nishimuro and NYSE Group Inc.'s chief executive, John Thain, have met several times during the last week about forging greater cooperation between the two exchanges.

The New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange announced an alliance Wednesday that extends the NYSE's global reach and could lead to an eventual combination of the world's two largest financial markets. The broad, nonexclusive agreement announced by NYSE Chief Executive John Thain and TSE President Taizo Nishimuro allows the two stock markets to cooperate on joint developments such as financial products, mutual listings and technology.

A judge took the unusual step Wednesday of reversing a jury verdict, finding that the evidence did not support the fraud conviction of a former New York Stock Exchange supervisor who once oversaw all trading in General Electric Co. stock. David A. Finnerty had been convicted in October of securities fraud by a jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Even then, Judge Denny Chin cast doubt on the verdict, saying he was troubled by some of the evidence that prosecutors used to convict Finnerty.

Computer glitches that added to the turmoil of Tuesday's stock market plunge struck some on Wall Street as an illustration of the downside of the markets' moving increasingly to electronic trading. At the same time, problems at the New York Stock Exchange handed a bragging issue to its arch-rival, the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., which said its electronic systems handled Tuesday's trading without significant disruptions. As U.S.