Nasdaq Once Again Pushes Back Date For Extending Hours on Quote Systems
The after-hours trading revolution on U.S. stock markets has been delayed yet again.</br></br>While certain individual investors can already trade stocks through alternative trading systems as late as 8 p.m. EDT -- or even overnight -- the Nasdaq Stock Market and the New York Stock Exchange will sit out the evening session a little longer, it was announced Friday.</br></br>Nasdaq said it pushed back the tentative date when it will extend hours for certain stock-quotation distribution systems to Oct. 25 from today. The market said it is working out details of the plan with its participants and with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has yet to approve it. That means a similar plan for NYSE-listed stocks most likely also will be pushed back.</br></br>Those plans, of course, never did amount to a full-blown extension of hours by the two stock forums. Both the Big Board and Nasdaq, a unit of the National Association of Securities Dealers, plan to keep their official closing time at 4 p.m. Eastern time until at least next year.</br></br>Meanwhile, investors were given some preliminary guidance on Friday as to how after-hours trading on the major U.S. stock markets might look. Three of the four working groups created at a June summit to study the issues of full-blown extended hours by Nasdaq and the Big Board submitted reports containing their recommendations.