Specialized Finance

NYSE (NYSE: NYX) `Absolutely Not' Considering Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Counter Bid, Reuters reports.

JP Morgan is reiterating its Overweight ratings on Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO) and McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) shares and lifting respective price targets to $42 and $46. The stocks have been strong YTD, bolstered by heavy corporate debt issuance globally. JP Morgan's investment thesis on...

Barclays has downgraded CIT Group (NYSE: CIT) from Overweight to Equal Weight and has lowered the price target from $48 to $46.

Analysts at Barclays downgrade CIT Group Inc (NYSE: CIT) from “overweight” to “equal weight.” The target price for CIT has been lowered from $48 to $46. CIT shares gained 0.68% to close at $42.74 yesterday. More Analyst Ratings here

CNBC reports that Nyse Euronext (NYSE: NYX) board to meet by April 14.

MarketAxess Holdings (NASDAQ: MKTX) today announced total monthly trading volume for March 2011 of $52.2 billion, consisting of $32.4 billion in U.S. high-grade volume, $3.9 billion in eurobond volume, and $16.0 billion in other volume.

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) today reported record futures volume and average daily volume for the first quarter of 2011. Futures ADV increased 24% in the first quarter of 2011, including year-over-year growth of 16% for the month of March 2011. ICE also achieved record average daily...

Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE: SWN) was downgraded by UBS from "buy" to "neutral." SWN's shares closed at $42.87 on Friday. Southwestern Energy's trailing-twelve-month ROA is 11.83%. BMO Capital downgraded HiSoft Technology International Ltd (NASDAQ: HSFT) from “outperform” to “market perform...

Nasdaq OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) shares are within 3% of the price target and believe the current valuation adequately reflects the prospects for the core business. Following the recent stock move combined with the uncertainty of the joint proposal for NYX, Jefferies believes the risk/reward in the...

CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) today announced March volume averaged 14.4 million contracts per day, up 31 percent from March 2010. Total volume for March was 331 million contracts, of which a record 85 percent was traded electronically. First-quarter 2011 volume averaged 13.8 million contracts per...

Analysts at Jefferies downgrade NASDAQ OMX Group Inc (NASDAQ: NDAQ) from “buy” to “hold.” The target price for NDAQ is set to $29. NDAQ shares jumped 9.25% to close at $28.23 on Friday. More Analyst Ratings here

Analysts at Wells Fargo downgrade NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) from “outperform” to “market perform.” NYX shares surged 12.60% to close at $39.60 on Friday. More Analyst Ratings here

Nasdaq (NDAQ) and IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) are making a joint offer of $11.3 billion offer for NYSE Euronext (NYX), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange. I have previously predicted stock exchange takeover activity in an article back in February. Just one week later, the NYSE Euronext...

Cusick's Corner The market held its ground into the After Hours, but I did not see the thrust that I would give the bulls the total edge. Next week has the potential to be more volatile, with the EU rate decisions on the Thursday, looks like more tightening by the hawks looming, and the canary,...

The overall market closed near the bottom of its daily trading range as sellers begin stepping in at around 1:45 p.m. EST. Here are the five best and worst performers on the day: Best 1) NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX): Closed trading up nearly 12.6% at $39.60 on the news that NASDAQ and ICE made a...