Nasdaq dealers shunning offer in U.S. inquiry
NEW YORK -- The Justice Department's antitrust investigation of the Nasdaq Stock Market may not result in the neat wrap-up that the agency had sought.</br></br>Executives at major Wall Street securities firms who deal on Nasdaq say they haven't taken up the Justice Department on its offer to commence settlement talks to end the federal agency's year-old investigation of the market's trading practices.</br></br>On the contrary, these Nasdaq-dealing firms say they remain convinced that the Justice Department will have a hard time bringing and proving an antitrust case, and for now it's worth letting the government's investigation grind on.</br></br>In making its settlement overture nearly a month ago, the Justice Department clearly had hoped the dealers would think it best to settle the matter without millions of dollars more in legal costs for both sides. But so far, at least, the major dealers disagree, partly because the Justice Department has been coy about disclosing exactly how it will prove antitrust violations.</br></br>"People don't know what they have, if anything," explained a Wall Street lawyer intimately familiar with the investigations. "It's a big poker game, it's cat and mouse" at this point, with the dealers unwilling to capitulate unless the Justice Department shows more of its hand, this person said.