FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                     2000-151
                                
       Stock Markets Agree to Distinguish After-Hours and
            Regular Session Trades with "T" Modifier
                                
     Washington, DC, October 4, 2000 - The Securities and
Exchange Commission today announced that the stock markets that
comprise the Consolidated Tape Association (CTA) have agreed to
implement a plan to help investors distinguish after-hours and
regular session stock trades.
     
     The CTA acts as the central distributor of the consolidated
tape -- a high-speed, electronic system that constantly reports
the latest price and volume data on sales of exchange-listed
stocks.  The data reflected on the consolidated tape derives from
various market centers, including all securities exchanges,
electronic communications networks (ECNs), and other broker-
dealers.  The Nasdaq Stock Market runs a similar tape for its
securities.  Market data vendors supply the tape data to their
subscribers and newspapers use this information to produce their
daily stock tables.  In addition, many financial news television
programs and Internet sites directly display price and volume
information from the tapes.

     Over the last year, the Commission has received a number of
complaints from investors and issuers about confusing end-of-day
securities prices.  This confusion has arisen from
inconsistencies among market data vendors and the media
concerning when they take their end-of-day "snap shots" of stock
prices.  For example, some snap shots have reflected prices
shortly after the end of the regular trading session at 4:00 p.m.
(Eastern), while others have used prices at various times until
the end of the consolidated tape operations at 6:30 p.m.
(Eastern).  This lack of consistency in stock prices can be
particularly confusing if small volume after-hours trades result
in a sharp price change from a stock's regular session closing
price.
     
     SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt said, "I commend the CTA's
efforts to provide investors with more reliable and consistent
end-of-day share price reports.  I hope that vendors and the
media will take advantage of the new tools provided by the CTA to
distinguish regular session stock prices from those in the less
liquid and more volatile after-hours market."
     
     Specifically, the CTA is implementing two initiatives to
assist vendors and the media in distinguishing after-hours and
regular session stock prices:

  *  First, the CTA recently began issuing a daily 4:15 p.m.
     (Eastern) Market Summary that more accurately reflects regular
     session stock prices.  This summary gives a "snapshot" of the
     market shortly after the end of the regular trading session (the
     period in which more than 97 percent of the day's trading
     occurs).  By using the prices in the Market Summary, vendors and
     the media can reduce investor confusion about end-of-day security
     prices.

  *  Second, the CTA is implementing a mechanism to clearly
     identify after-hours trades on the consolidated tape.  At the
     urging of the Commission staff, the CTA participants decided that
     a "T" modifier should be added to after-hours trade reports in a
     uniform manner.  Several markets that operate after-hours trading
     sessions already have begun using the "T" modifier and the
     remaining markets with after-hours sessions have indicated that
     they will complete the programming necessary for this by the end
     of October 2000.  The Nasdaq tape already uses the "T" modifier
     to identify after-hours trades.  Vendors and the media can use
     the "T" modifiers to segregate after-hours transactions from end-
     of-day stock price summaries that are designed to reflect regular
     session trading activity.  This should reduce investor confusion
     and concern about trades occurring after hours where prices
     diverge from prices in the regular trading session.

     For more information on the consolidated tape, after-hours
trading, and closing prices, visit
     
      www.sec.gov/consumer/keyword/tconsolt.html