Banking, finance, and taxes

The NYSE Already Misses Nortel & Lucent Volume

The New York Stock Exhange just feels different today from an outsider viewpoint.  It’s just before noon and the news Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), has only traded 9 million shares.  Nortel (NT) has only traded 4.6 million shares.

Neither name is in the top 10 trading volume on NYSE today, something that probably hasn’t been the case for literally 3 or 4 years.

Now we have the NYSE most actives today as Home Depot (HD), EMC (EMC), Pfizer (PFE), Ford (F), GM (GM), Wal-Mart (WMT), Motorola (MOT), DirecTV (DTV), Advanced Micro (AMD), and Exxon Mobil (XOM).  Hell, half of those are DJIA components.  After the initial traders’ withdrawal goes away these may fall much farther down the list.

To be fair ALU is number 11 on the list, but the NYSE just doesn’t feel the same.  NT isn’t even in the top 20 in NYSE trading volume today.  Out of the other top 20 volume stocks on the NYSE only Ford (F) and Qwest (Q) have share prices under $10.00.

While the NYSE has to notice this on their trading volume, the NASDAQ is even slower today.  The NYSE has 1.13 Billion shares and the NASDAQ has only 850 million shares having traded hands.  While this is the first Friday in December, it makes you wonder if the coming Fridays as we head into the holiday season will be even slower.

Jon C. Ogg
December 1, 2006

Take This Retirement Quiz To Get Matched With A Financial Advisor (Sponsored)

Take the quiz below to get matched with a financial advisor today.

Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests.

Here’s how it works:
1. Answer SmartAsset advisor match quiz
2. Review your pre-screened matches at your leisure. Check out the advisors’ profiles.
3. Speak with advisors at no cost to you. Have an introductory call on the phone or introduction in person and choose whom to work with in the future

Take the retirement quiz right here.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.