NYSE to be merged with European SE

[Squilly]

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opi...029251786.html


No wonder the market crashed today...

[eric/]

wow

The market didn't really crash, btw.

[webbuzz]

Originally Posted by Squilly

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opi...029251786.html


No wonder the market crashed today...

Compared to other one day drops over the last decade, 100 points is hardly a crash.

It appears that investors panicked after the Federal Reserve released their meeting minutes.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100474846

[samiwas]

Originally Posted by Squilly

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opi...029251786.html


No wonder the market crashed today...

The DJI went from less than 40 points off it's highest level in history to about 170 points below, yet still higher than pretty much any time in history. Not a crash.

[Thomas Veil]

My first inclination was to doubt this as just another tin foil hat rumor. But upon checking:

On December 20, 2012, the boards of directors of both IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and the NYSE Euronext approved an $8 billion acquisition of NYSE Euronext. Under the terms shareholders of NYSE would receive either $33.12 in cash for each share or .2581 IntercontinentalExchange Inc. shares, or a combination of $11.27 in cash per share plus .1703 shares of stock.[23] The acquisition is subject to regulator approval, though since the operations of ICE and NYSE have little in common—ICE is largely devoted to trading commodities, as opposed to NYSE's business of trading stocks and securities—the deal is not expected to be blocked.[24] ICE said that after the deal closed it would sell the Euronext portion of the company, including stock exchanges in Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris.[25] ICE CEO Jeffrey C. Sprecher would continue in that position at the combined company, while NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer would serve as president.[24] The future of the New York Stock Exchange's historic trading floor under ICE has not been announced. ICE closed the high profile and historic trading floors of its other earlier acquisitions -- the International Petroleum Exchange and the New York Board of Trade in New York.[26]

Which jibes pretty much with what Aljazeera says in the OP's link:

Wall Street is the land of dreams and deals. But this one involves $8.2 billion from an outfit called the Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE (no, not the ICE immigration police that deport illegal aliens). How in this time of austerity and structural unemployment did these wheeler dealers come up with $8.2bn bill is not even a question being asked.

The New York Times was incredulous: "It sounds preposterous. A businessman from Atlanta blows into New York and walks off with the colonnaded high temple of American capitalism….his $8.2bn transaction... will close later this year. And with that, 221 years of Wall Street history will come to an end."

What seems to be happening is that stocks are now out, and derivatives are in. In a side deal, The Knight Capital Group (Knights like in the middle ages?) will be sold for another $1.4 billion to Getco, a company that we know little about because it is privately held....

What we have here, according to the editorial wags at the New York Times, is the creation of the "world's largest derivative market operators" and the "most dominant stock traders, who would take advantage of securities regulations that have encouraged the development of alternative trading systems".

Say goodbye to the idea of effective financial regulation through the Dodd Frank mechanisms or any other.

The fact that this was happening in the week that the government finally decided to prosecute some bankers for their LIBOR transgressions shows how the guys on top remain on top by thinking and planning ahead.

Government regulators are no match for their cleverness and their shrewd capacity for accumulation and extraction, as big money making there is described.

Indeed. Does anyone else get the feeling that these monetary games are being played so far above our heads, and with so little attention from the media, and so little supervision by our esteemed politicians, that events are pretty much out of our control?

I'd love for someone to tell me that Aljazeera is just being alarmist and this is not as spooky as it sounds. But recent history doesn't imbue me with confidence.

[iStudentUK]

Originally Posted by Thomas Veil

Indeed. Does anyone else get the feeling that these monetary games are being played so far above our heads, and with so little attention from the media, and so little supervision by our esteemed politicians, that events are pretty much out of our control?

I'd love for someone to tell me that Aljazeera is just being alarmist and this is not as spooky as it sounds. But recent history doesn't imbue me with confidence.

The simple matter of fact is that these things are too complex for the average person to understand. Journalists don't really understand it, so how can they report it? The closest you get are the financial papers (the FT etc) but that is still dumbed down and not widely read by those outside banking/finance/law anyway.

I don't profess to know all about this stuff (I am but a humble corporate lawyer) but the OP's article was cringeworthy and massively dumbed down.

Even the thread title is misleading, the exchanges aren't merged - two corporations that operate various exchanges merged. NYSE Euronext was formed in 2007 by merger, now there is a deal pending for ICE to buy that corporation. Why is that so scary?

[Squilly]

Originally Posted by iStudentUK

Why is that so scary?

There would be no more NYSE....

[elistan]

Why the angst?

NYSE Euronext, Inc. is a multinational securities exchange corporation headquartered in NYC, NY.
IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. is a multinational commodities exchange corporation headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

One can say that "the NYSE" doesn't exist today, except in name.

If the acquisition goes through, there would be a multinational exchange corporation headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

The acquisition was announced back in December last year.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57560197/intercontinentalexchange-to-buy-nyse-for-$8.2b/

Nothing to do with any market movements yesterday.

[iStudentUK]

Originally Posted by Squilly

There would be no more NYSE....

Do you mean the stock exchange would cease to exist, or the trading floor? They are two different things. Take the LSE (like the NYSE one of the top three exchanges), it hasn't had a trading floor for a couple of decades - everything is virtual.

[Zombie Acorn]

Originally Posted by iStudentUK

The simple matter of fact is that these things are too complex for the average person to understand. Journalists don't really understand it, so how can they report it? The closest you get are the financial papers (the FT etc) but that is still dumbed down and not widely read by those outside banking/finance/law anyway.

The last time I heard that, the entire world economy was nearly collapsed by those same banking/finance/lawyer types who were the only ones who could understand these "complex" systems.

[iStudentUK]

Originally Posted by Zombie Acorn

The last time I heard that, the entire world economy was nearly collapsed by those same banking/finance/lawyer types who were the only ones who could understand these "complex" systems.

Well maybe I should have said too complex for anyone to understand! I'm only half joking...

There's no realistic way of getting a typical member of the public to either (a) understand the systems involved; or (b) care enough to learn about it.

I've been 'in the biz' for a couple of years now, and all I've learnt is how little I know. The chances of the average man in the street understanding the complex nature of modern economic markets is pretty much zero.