Feds Seek Order In Nasdaq Probe

The Justice Department sought a federal court order Monday to force the Nasdaq Stock Market’s parent to comply with a probe of possible anticompetitive practices on the electronic trading exchange.

The department’s antitrust division, in court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, said it has been seeking records since Jan. 20, 1995, concerning market activity and activities of members in the National Association of Securities Dealers.

The NASD is a powerful industry group that runs Nasdaq, an interconnected national web of stock dealers who trade with each other via computer and telephone. Nasdaq is the second-largest U.S. stock market after the New York Stock Exchange, but unlike the NYSE has no physical trading floor.

The records are needed as part of the Justice’s examination of Nasdaq market makers - major Wall Street firms such as Merrill Lynch & Co. and Salomon Inc. - which trade Nasdaq stocks for their own account and handle customer orders.