Stock Exchanges Europe

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 stock market, exhausted by its most turbulent and terrifying week in six decades, closed two hours early Friday virtually where it began the day. The Dow Jones industrial average rose a bare 0.33 points, closing at 1,950.76, while broader measures of the market were down slightly. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange was 245.6 million shares, bringing the total number of shares traded this week to 1.3 billion, a figure that just two weeks ago would have been unthinkable.

Free-market economics and political liberty were the worldwide hallmarks of this decade--and may still be the basic, underlying trends. But something has happened, a shadow of doubt on the inevitability of open markets in Russia, Hong Kong and elsewhere, a threat to historic reforms in Brazil and other Latin American countries. Storm clouds are no longer beyond the horizon, but are threatening a global depression that would scuttle even the strong U.S. economy.