The heat is on the Securities and Exchange Commission to employ emergency measures to prevent a repeat of the episode after Thursday's scary market plunges saw stocks usually regarded as safe inexplicably drop precipitously for several minutes.Regulators have so far given no indication that they have any idea what triggered the dive, adding to concerns among investors over what kind of market they are trading in.
Tempers were short in Washington. Lawmakers wanted to know why regulators had no answers while the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission said not to look for quick explanations.
"Clearly the Securities and Exchange Commission needs to act," an exasperated Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said on CBS's "Face the Nation" program.
"They need to step up very quickly and let us know what happened here and what steps need to be taken," he said. "I don't think you need legislation in this area. You need the regulators to step up."
Speculation initially centered on the possibility that there was a massive "fat finger" accidental trade by an individual but that has now been discounted.
Another theory is that a huge computerized trading program was triggered by a big currency-related play amid the deepening Greece-related crisis.
The meeting, set for Monday morning at 1000 EDT/1400 GMT, was called by SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, and is expected to address whether they need to implement a market-wide stock-specific circuit breaker which would halt sudden plunges in individual stocks, a source familiar with an investigation into the events said.
It will also discuss finding ways to possibly rein in market orders and will address stop-loss selling, the source said. Any new rule would need approval from a majority of 5 commissioners.
The meeting will include bosses of NYSE Euronext NASDQ OMX Group Inc., Direct Edge, a private U.S. trading venue operator and BATS Global Markets, the third-largest exchange operator, sources said, but won't include futures or options exchange heads, one source said.
Exchange heads will also meet Treasury officials at 1400 EDT/1800 GMT, that source said.
Some of the exchanges are, in addition, expected to participate in Congressional hearings by the Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, the source said.
Representatives for Direct Edge and BATS confirmed they will attend Monday's planned meeting. NYSE and Nasdaq declined comment.
QUEASY OPEN
Investors face a queasy opening for Monday markets, still jittery after last Thursday's nearly 1,000-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, followed by a rebound that still left prices down for the day. After another decline on Friday, stocks are now negative for the year to date.
"Like most people I'm just surprised an investigation of the last few days didn't provide more information," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm Libertyview Capital Management. Meckler said that if the cause remains a mystery it will undermine confidence over the course of the year.
In the absence of decisive action by regulators, the exchanges sought to strike a unified front after days of bickering that only added to a sense of drift in the world's biggest and busiest markets.
Ordinary investors, increasingly tied to market developments through their 401K plans and other investments that were whipsawed last week, faced the same dilemma over why and whether it might happen again.
"It's a confidence issue... until you get away from finger-pointing and get to a bottom line explanation of exactly what happened, it can't bode well for investors," said Alan Lancz, president, Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc., an investment advisory firm, based in Toledo, Ohio.
BURY HATCHET, NOT IN ONE ANOTHER
NYSE Euronext and NASDQ OMX said they were "committed to working closely" with one another and with regulators to find out what happened -- a far cry from back-and-forth carping at the end of the week over whose computer systems might have been most at fault.
Dodd, who appeared on CBS with Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Tennessee whose assistance he needs to steer a massive financial regulatory bill through the Senate, deplored the fact that sophisticated markets were so out of touch with the real economy that ordinary Americans must live in.
"We need some answers pretty soon," he said, because unruly markets are a threat.
"You are getting some of this casino environment that is appearing in our markets," Dodd said, fostering economic risk that will force the government's hand on regulation.
"We need to get in place a bill, have the president sign it so that we have tools to protect our economy from these kinds of events," he said.
Sources said on Saturday that the SEC was considering whether trading restrictions could be imposed across markets for companies that have fallen a certain percentage within a specific time-frame, one source said. Another source said more circuit breakers at a stock level was another possibility.
Thursday's moves were so dramatic that it was unclear where to start. At one point, at least a half-dozen stocks including Accenture and Exelon Corp briefly traded for as low as a penny a share. Some trades had to be canceled.
One theory hit the dust on Sunday when Terra Nova Financial Group, Inc, a self clearing brokerage firm, said it "strongly refuted an unfounded report published in TheStreet.com" that suggested unusual trading activity in Procter & Gamble's shares on May 6 originated from Terra Nova.chi flat irons chi flat iron
chi hair straightener
fly in the sky
farouk chi 1 chi flat irons chi flat iron
hair straighteners hair straightener
http://vil.cc
http://acurazine.com/forums
http://www.yemeklervetarifleri.net
http://www.careertalk.in
http://www.thetwilightforums.com
