AP braces for later market trading

By: Lucia Moses Newspapers will soon be faced with handling later stock price tables when markets start reporting trades made after hours, as expected.
On Oct. 11, the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and New York Stock Exchange (nyse) are expected to begin reporting online brokerages' trades until 6:30 p.m. edt after the current 4 p.m. market close, although the start date has been delayed once already.
That means newspapers, which often print business pages early in their cycle, will get the latest closing stock prices a couple hours later than in the past.
The plans, pending federal Securities and Exchange Commission approval, are seen as the latest step toward later stock trading. A number of online brokerages have extended trading hours or are planning to do so. The later price reports could impact newspapers' press times (business pages often are printed early) and news coverage, depending on how active late trading is and whether public companies delay making news announcements.
The Associated Press, which provides stock tables to more than 900 newspapers, is preparing to make the later closing stock prices available when the markets start reporting after-hours trades. The ap sent an advisory to its member papers and is alerting its bureau chiefs of the anticipated changes.
Most newspapers seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach. For consistency's sake, the ap urged its members to stick to publishing the current 4 p.m. prices, the ones used by mutual-fund companies and stock indices to calculate their values, and consider running separate tables for active after-hours trading.
"We think by and large, people are going to be looking for a reference point," ap Business Editor Randy Picht said.
For now, late-trading volume is expected to be light because the markets will capture the now thin and fragmented brokerage trading but won't be doing their own trades, Picht said. That will change in the first half of 2000, when Nasdaq and the service that reports nyse prices are expected to extend their own trading sessions.
While some newspapers may see the extended sessions as a news and production snag, Picht sees an opportunity for papers to establish themselves as standard-setters as the last price seems to become later and later.
"We are the publisher of record for stock prices," he said. "Readers, they're going to need something to cling to."

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