SEC to query stock market leaders on sell-off
WASHINGTON — The chief executive officers of the biggest US stock markets were called to a meeting at the US Securities and Exchange to discuss last week’s sell-off in equities, according to four people familiar with the situation.
Duncan Niederauer of NYSE Euronext, Robert Greifeld of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., Joe Ratterman of Bats Global Markets Inc., and William O’Brien of Direct Edge Holdings LLC will meet with agency officials today at 10 a.m. in Washington, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the meeting hasn’t been publicly announced.
The SEC is considering regulatory changes aimed at slowing trading during periods of cascading prices, even though the agency hasn’t concluded what caused the plunge, two people familiar with the matter said Friday. The Nasdaq and NYSE are committed to “working closely with each other’’ and regulators to determine the cause of the decline, the two exchanges said in a statement earlier yesterday.
About $700 billion of value was erased from US exchanges during an eight-minute span Thursday.
Computerized trades sent to electronic networks turned an orderly stock market decline into a rout, according to Larry Leibowitz, the chief operating officer of NYSE Euronext.
