Stock Exchanges

U.S. stock markets plan to reopen Wednesday after being shuttered for two days following the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. The New York Stock Exchange's parent company, NYSE Euronext, said trading would commence as usual with a 9:30 a.m. EDT opening bell. The NYSE said it was in coordination with all U.S. stock, bond, options and derivatives markets. The New York Stock Exchange's building and trading floor are "fully operational" despite flooding in Manhattan's financial district.

NEW YORK - For more than two centuries, New York Stock Exchange traders barking buy and sell orders symbolized American capitalism at work. But the last decade has witnessed the rise of the machines - electronic exchanges offering cheaper and faster stock trading. The Big Board could not keep up. Now, the NYSE is issuing a sell order - its own. The world's most well-known exchange operator said Thursday that it had agreed to be bought by a mostly unknown electronic rival for $8.2 billion.

The New York Stock Exchange said it plans to open for trading Monday despite the threat of disruptions as Hurricane Sandy barrels toward the East Coast. NYSE Euronext said it is "monitoring the advance of Hurricane Sandy and preparations are in place for our U.S. markets to operate normally on Monday. " A spokesman for the Nasdaq Stock Market couldn't be immediately reached. New York's major airports were preparing to shut down late Sunday and airlines were canceling hundreds of flights in and out of the area.

NYSE Euronext, operator of the New York Stock Exchange, has agreed to sell itself to the IntercontinentalExchange in an acquisition that would reshape Wall Street. ICE, a 12-year-old electronic exchange operator based in Atlanta, will pay $33.12 a share for NYSE Euronext in a stock-and-cash deal worth $8.2 billion. The companies announced the acquisition early Thursday, saying both of their boards or directors unanimously approved the deal. The acquisition is slated to close in the second half of 2013, pending the blessing of U.S. and European regulators and both companies' shareholders.

The communist government will open a limited stock exchange in Budapest on Jan. 1 with only members permitted to buy and sell shares, according to the head of the securities trade secretariat. The planned stock exchange is to open at the same time that a new law on companies goes into effect. Government officials have said the law, now in the drafting stage, will be presented to Parliament in the fall.

A group of major investment firms announced plans Thursday to invest $23 million in a London-based electronic stock exchange that they hope could eventually compete with U.S. players such as the New York Stock Exchange. The investment in Tradepoint Financial Networks, which runs an innovative but money-losing exchange, is another example of the dramatic shifts taking place in the way that shares are traded around the globe.

The first stock exchange in Communist Yugoslavia was set up Tuesday in the northern city of Ljubljana, the state Tanjug news agency reported. It said that the exchange was founded with a total capital of $17 million and that 152 stocks representing more than 50% of its capital were owned by 23 Yugoslav banks. The exchange will list Yugoslav and foreign companies and will publish the so-called YUIX--the Yugoslav Index--an average of the prices of selected stocks at the close of each trading day.

The New York and American stock exchanges canceled all trading today as Hurricane Gloria bore down on the Northeast. Regional stock exchanges elsewhere in the country also closed, some after trading briefly. The over-the-counter market operated by the National Assn. of Securities Dealers in Washington opened, but the group's traders decided to halt at noon after two hours of trading.

Officials at the major financial exchanges in Chicago and New York have agreed to establish a communications hot line for use during market crises and are working to develop other information systems that will more closely link the country's stock and futures markets. Agreement on the proposed hot line was reached during a series of meetings between exchange officials and regulators last month, according to sources involved in the talks.

CAIRO - Security forces built a wall to contain stone-throwing protesters and Egypt's stock exchange tumbled Sunday amid growing unrest over President Mohamed Morsi's decision to expand his powers in a nation dispirited and angered by months of uncertainty. The country's main stock index fell nearly 10% in one of the most bruising days of trading since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Morsi's power grab left traders fearful that foreign investors - desperately needed to rescue Egypt's troubled economy - would shy away from the nation in light of the latest spasm of political instability.

Hurricane Sandy's tumultuous passage through the East Coast left a muddled picture on Wall Street, bumping up stock for companies key to pre-storm prep and post-tempest reconstruction while tamping down others suffering from lost sales. Stock exchanges reopened Wednesday after shutting down for two days to wait out the weather. After rising early in the day, stocks overall dropped into negative territory in midday trading. Home Depot, which extended its weekend hours at its Northeast stores as residents rushed to buy supplies, enjoyed a 4.9% bump as its stock rose as high as $63 a share in morning trading.

WASHINGTON -- The National Weather Service's websites for the Eastern part of the U.S. were operating in backup mode Tuesday, offering limited updated information on the remnants of Hurricane Sandy after suffering a systems failure earlier in the day. Disruptions in the websites serving the Eastern region were caused by a cut fiber-optic line, said Sean Potter, a weather service spokesman.  "As this issue is being resolved, we are now...

U.S. stock markets plan to reopen Wednesday after being shuttered for two days following the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. The New York Stock Exchange's parent company, NYSE Euronext, said trading would commence as usual with a 9:30 a.m. EDT opening bell. The NYSE said it was in coordination with all U.S. stock, bond, options and derivatives markets. The New York Stock Exchange's building and trading floor are "fully operational" despite flooding in Manhattan's financial district.

The New York Stock Exchange said it plans to open for trading Monday despite the threat of disruptions as Hurricane Sandy barrels toward the East Coast. NYSE Euronext said it is "monitoring the advance of Hurricane Sandy and preparations are in place for our U.S. markets to operate normally on Monday. " A spokesman for the Nasdaq Stock Market couldn't be immediately reached. New York's major airports were preparing to shut down late Sunday and airlines were canceling hundreds of flights in and out of the area.

Investors' faith in the stock market has been shaken badly in recent years, and Wall Street's latest trading snafu could further chip away at their trust. The New York Stock Exchange agreed Friday to pay $5 million to settle charges that it made stock quotes available to select customers before the general public. It was the first-ever monetary penalty against a stock exchange. The fine itself was a pittance by Wall Street standards, and professionals got the quotes by only seconds, or even fractions of a second, before everyone else.

Wall Street investment firms have not had the most successful initial public offerings in recent years — and Oaktree Capital Group may be no exception. Despite being highly regarded, the Los Angeles distressed-debt manager raised less in its IPO on Wednesday than planned. The company announced that it raised $380 million by selling 8.8 million shares at $43 each. That's at the lower end of its proposed range of $43 to $46 a share, according to an earlier filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook Inc. has found a home on Wall Street — Nasdaq will be listing the social networking giant's shares for its hotly anticipated stock market debut, according to Sam Hamadeh, chief executive of research firm PrivCo. No official announcement was made Thursday by the company or the stock exchange. Hamadeh said he confirmed the information with two sources close to the deal that he declined to name. The tech-heavy Nasdaq and its rival, the New York Stock Exchange, had waged a high-stakes competition to land the biggest technology initial public stock offering since Google Inc. went public in 2004.