Nasdaq Revises Minimum-Share Trading Plan

The Nasdaq Stock Market, responding to a Securities and Exchange Commission request, said it scaled back its proposal to reduce the minimum number of shares that can be traded under the SEC’s new order-handling rules. The rules, which seek to give investors access to the best available prices on the nation’s second-largest stock market, are to be phased in starting Jan. 20. The revised plan would still reduce the minimum quote size from 1,000 shares to 100, but the minimum would apply on a pilot basis to just the 50 Nasdaq stocks that are to be traded initially under the rules, rather than all 5,540 Nasdaq stocks that would be covered. The SEC, which had indicated it would make a decision on the proposal Thursday or today, declined to comment.