Wall Street banks prepare for round-the-clock stock trading

Round-the-clock trading is fast approaching US stock markets, but not all of Wall Street is embracing the move.

- 

Traders at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. Proponents of the move to round-the-clock trading have argued it will allow retail and institutional investors -- especially those based outside the US -- to respond more quickly to news that breaks outside US market hours. -- REUTERS

(REUTERS)

Several of the largest US banks are reluctant to push aggressively into enabling round-the-clock stock trading, even as equity markets are marching toward a broad rollout of nearly nonstop trading later next year and exchanges are preparing for action. Nasdaq on Monday filed paperwork with regulators to extend trading to 23 hours a day on weekdays. The push toward nonstop weekday trading for the first time on a major global bourse comes as investors globally have clamored for greater access to US capital markets in recent years, prompting regulators to introduce new rules and bless proposals from large exchanges to extend trading hours.

While US exchanges, clearinghouses, and market-plumbing firms are charting the technical path and infrastructure, some large US dealers are raising questions about the risks of such a move that will require tens of billions of dollars of investment, with little guarantee of a huge payday, according to interviews with half a dozen executives at US banks, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter.