Nyse Adjusts Rules For Circuit Breakers

The New York Stock Exchange decided Thursday to make modest changes to rules that halt trading in the nation’s stock markets when prices plunge, but skipped a plan to make it harder to trigger the so-called circuit breakers.

The amendment being proposed by the NYSE would keep the point triggers the same, but impose shorter trading halts after 2 p.m. and close trading entirely when there is a dramatic drop after 3 p.m.

Currently, trading is suspended for half hour if the Dow Jones industrial average drops 350 points and for one hour if the index loses 550 points.

The NYSE said it will propose additional changes to the rule in 1998, leaving open the possibility that it may pursue a plan offered by stock exchange staff to raise the threshold for triggering trading halts.

That plan would have required a 10 percent drop in the Dow for the first halt and 20 percent for the second. At current market levels, that would be about 800 points and 1,600 points.