The New York Stock Exchange has decided to temporarily suspend (subscription required) a rule requiring that companies be kicked off the exchange when their shares fall below $1 for 30 consecutive days. With the stock market in free fall, many once proud companies have seen their shares dive into that bargain basement, and the NYSE has decided it doesn't want to add fuel to the fire by sending them off to Casino Pink Sheets.

The exchange also said that it would maintain its relaxed minimum market cap standard of $15 million -- down from the usual $25 million. Both new policies will be in effect until June 30th, unless they are renewed.

A New York State appeals court has ordered claims of excessive pay leveled at former NYSE chairman Richard Grasso to be dismissed. Grasso rose to infamy in 2003 when it was reported that he had been granted a deferred compensation package of $140 million. The SEC criticized the deal, Grasso was asked to leave, Eliot Spitzer sued, and much publicity was had by all.

The court ordered the claims dismissed on the grounds that the attorney general's office no longer had the authority to pursue the claims because the NYSE restructured itself as a for-profit corporation in 2005.

As egregious as Grasso's pay was, this is not a matter that should have ended up in court. It's a corporate governance issue. If the board is inept and captured enough to throw money down the toilet, it's up to the people they represent to revolt. True: Grasso probably exerted undue influence over the board but ultimately the directors are responsible for maintaining their independence.

If regulators want to improve executive compensation practices, they should do it by making it easier for shareholders to hold directors accountable -- no wasting taxpayer money necessary! Gary Weiss chimed in that "it struck me and many others as an odd use of public resources to pursue a case on behalf of the millionaire seatholders of the NYSE.

Italian clothing retailer Benetton Group (NYSE: BNG) gained more than 8% yesterday, closing up $2.58 at $33.23 on news that Deutsche Bank upped BNG to Buy. While good news, this is not the biggest Benetton news. The Board of Directors of the company recently announced the company will voluntarily deregister and delist from the NYSE and will no longer offer American Depositary Shares (ADS) on the NYSE. The decision is not an indication that Benetton Group, known as much for its provocative advertising as for its fashions, is in any financial trouble. Far from it. The company recently issued first-half 2007 results that were positive all the way through the numbers. Revenues are up 10%, volume of sales is up 13% to 74 million garments. The company has benefited from a good product mix in its stores and the dollar's continued weakness against the euro.

What drove Benetton's Board of Directors to deregister and delist was the fact that the company simply does not do enough business in ADS to justify the expense of keeping a full set of books in compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. As Italian stock exchanges, particularly Milan, have grown more international in their offerings, American shareholders have begun to trade directly rather than through ADS. Benetton indicated it will still provide financial information and press releases in English, but will keep its books according to international standards.

Benetton senior management does not think delisting from the NYSE will have any adverse impact on the company's growth or earnings, which it forecasts to be in the 7-9% range.

The most troublesome aspect of Benetton's decision to delist may be the idea that foreign companies feel they do not need access to U.S. equity markets, still the biggest in the world. Perhaps the trading floor is leveling internationally. How many other foreign-registered companies are going to take a look at Benetton's decision and begin to do their own cost/benefit analysis on continued NYSE or Nasdaq listings?

We went months and months without trading curbs being in effect. Now it is almost daily as the new volatility trend is much higher. The New York Stock Exchange itself calls it trading collars and the levels change each quarter. For the third quarter, trading collars go into effect when the Dow Jones Industrial Average is +190 points or -190 points. Here at the NYSE site you can also see how far the market has to move before any trading halts start coming into play.

If you aren't sure what trading curbs are, when the market rises above a threshold program buying can only be done on a down-tick. Conversely, if the market is tanking then program selling can only be done on an uptick. This keeps a little bit of a cap on the stock market and keeps it from getting too out of hand in either direction. That is the theory anyhow.

Now that the down-tick rule has been eliminated as of July short sellers can openly short sell a stock at the bid regardless of a downtick. This has already been blamed a bit on the major down days. Trading curbs are essentially the last buffer outside of market halts.

When that +190 or -190 changes to only a 90 point change, then trading curbs come back off until the 190 pont change is hit again. The gap-ups were so big in some of these stocks that it isn't all that surprising that we have given up some of the post- cut gains from the Fed cutting the discount rate for members.

Jon Ogg is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.; he is the publisher of the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter and does not own securities in the companies he covers.

LaBranche (NYSE: LAB) is one of the largest floor trading specialists on the New York Stock Exchange. While this used to be a prestigious and lucrative role in day-to-day trading, the importance of humans in trading continues to decrease with time.. As a result of this technological progress, LaBranche's business results have grown weaker in the last several years.

While LaBranche has seemingly done little in the last few years to prevent being "stuck in the old age", yesterday the company issued a press release regarding the future of the company. According to the PR, the company was able to sell its AMEX specialist business to Cohen Specialists, an announcement that came with an indication that LaBranche would report a loss on the sale. In addition, the company's board of directors has obtained two investment banks to explore "strategic alternatives" for the company. While this is very popular language on Wall St., I'm not sure if I'd think much of it because this is a level playing field: everyone following the recent activity and advancements in exchange technology knows and understands that the role of the specialist in trading is declining. I don't see why any buyer would pay significant money for this business unless, of course, the company can make advancements into the electronic trading space or the more lucrative trading of derivatives, futures, and the like.

In my opinion, I don't think the buzzwords "strategic alternatives" justify a buy in this one.

This is not that big of a deal, but nevertheless I think it's silly. Federated Department Str. (NYSE:FD) is changing its name to Macy's, and the ticker symbol for its stock will now be "M". While the costs of doing this will be a drop in the bucket for a company of Macy's, nee Federated's size, it doesn't seem like a good use of money: Changing all the signs, all the stationary, the legals fees, etc. So what is their rationale for doing this? According to the Associated Press, "The moves are part of Federated's strategy to focus on building Macy's as a national brand."

Huh? Isn't Macy's already a national brand? The Macy's day parade and all that. It's probably as iconic as any American retailer, with the possible exception of Wal-Mart. Isn't this sort of like Berkshire Hathaway changing its name to "Warren Buffett's Company" to try to enhance Buffett's reputation as a great investor?

This change just seems silly, and I'm surprised that Macy's management doesn't have more important issues to deal with.

A month ago, I wrote that Federated Department Stores (NYSE: FD) was seeking shareholder approval to change its corporate name to "Macy's Group." Today, with swimsuit season right around the corner, the retailing giant said it will slim down its stock symbol as well. If shareholders agree to the new new name of "Macy's Inc.," a new symbol of "M" will go hand in hand, beginning on June 1.

Over on the MarketBeat Blog, David Gaffen mentions that this single-letter ticker has laid dormant for years, as the New York Stock Exchange was rumored to hope that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) might one day want to simplify its ticker (and head over to the Big Board).

Shareholder approval for this change shouldn't be a problem, but I foresee bigger problems for the department-store name. Won't new-wave fans confuse the stock symbol with the succinctly named band of the same name (of Pop Muzik "fame?") Or what about James Bond's colleague?

Yes, confusion may be unavoidable, but that's not to say that the stock doesn't look intriguing at this juncture. A long-term uptrend has seen it nearly quadruple in value since February 2003, and this week has seen the equity pull back to double-tiered technical support. With its name back in the news, now may be an attractive entry point.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

NYSE Group, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) opened at $89.60. So far today the stock has hit a low of $88.46 and a high of $90.00. NYX is now trading at 89.75, up 1.33 (1.5%).

After hitting a one year high of 112.00 in November, the stock has been relatively flat around 100 until it dove down below 90 over the past week. NYX shares are up despite a competitor's disappointing earnings release this morning. The Nasdaq Exchange (NASDAQ: NDAQ) also failed in its takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange, and rumors are swirling that the LSE could look to partner with NYX. Recent technical indicators for NYX have been bearish and steady.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a March bull-put credit spread below the $75 range. NYX hasn't been below 75 since September and has shown support around 79.00. This trade could be risky if the stock market makes a decent sized correction, since the exchanges get hit hard when trading slows. However, if NYX does falter, the support formed in October around 75 could protect this position.

Brent Archer is an analyst on the move at Investors Observer. (Free Subscription)

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. You can vote for Martha Stewart as the magnate you'd like to see lose all her money.

Some might wonder whether domestic diva Martha Stewart has already lost her fortune, but the answer is a resounding no.

In 1995 New York Magazine declared this business magnate, author, editor, and commercial spokesperson to be the "definitive American woman of our time." In September 1997, Stewart secured funding to consolidate the various television, print, and merchandising ventures related to the Martha Stewart brand into a new company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE:MSO). Stewart served as chairwoman, president, and CEO, and when the initial public offering rallied by $20 per share, Stewart became a billionaire. She continues to be the majority shareholder, with a commanding percentage of voting power in the company.

In 2002 Stewart sold shares of a pharmaceutical company days before the company's patent application for a new drug was denied. Accusations of insider trading resulted in Stewart's conviction in 2004 for obstruction of justice, and she served five months in prison. She had to step down from her executive positions at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and she lost her seats on the boards of Revlon and the New York Stock Exchange.

Since her release from prison, her time has been spent reviving her empire. She hosts the day-time Emmy-nominated television program Martha, is again involved in her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, and has published new books. The price of her company's stock has rebounded significantly.

With a "bewildering array" of financial instruments to choose from, Nathan Slaughter, the editor of Half-Priced Stocks notes that investors often forget the potential of investing directly in those exchanges themselves.

For long term growth and value investors, Slaughter says, "These exchanges take a small cut from every market transaction." In other words, he explains, "think of these highly profitable companies as 'toll keepers,' charging a fee to anyone who wants to drive on their trading network."

So which exchanges should you invest in? First, he considers the NYSE Group, Inc. (NYSE: NYX), which he notes is the world's largest and most liquid stock exchange, with about 2,700 listed companies valued at more than $23 trillion.

Tonight on CNBC's MAD MONEY Jim Cramer was discussing NYSE Group, Inc. (NYSE:NYX).

He said there is an $87.00 stock that is going to $250.00 in the next two years: New York Stock Exchange. He said it is still noted by Wall Street as fully valued, but they are wrong. He said it doesn't even matter that it was up $5.00 today and you would wonder why it isn't up even more. He said there are no sellers of the stock. The specialists aren't selling, the old Archipelago holders aren't sellers. Cramer thinks a NYSE & Euronext combination could be huge.

Cramer said he was shocked at how quiet the floor was yesterday because it is thinning out. Cramer thinks the floorless trading is coming soon rather than later. he said the 500 worker cut this week was 17% of its workforce and they recently closed one of the five trading rooms.

Cramer enumerated the reasons he thinks the stock can get to $250:

1. hybrid systems rollout is speeding up trades
   
2. the exchange won't have to get into a bidding war over Euronext
3. while it was archaic and poorly run, it is now well-run, with massive improvements
4. Euronext savings will be $600 million
5. working deals in India and Japan, and
   
6. he hybrid system will help trim that $350 million in floor operation expenses.
   

He thinks it can earn $10 per share faster than he even thought a month ago, even though the street is only at $5.00 EPS for 2008.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in teh companies he covers.

What does it take to move this stock price? A lot apparently. Today General Electric closed at $33.93, down four cents on volume of 16.4 million shares -- making it the eighth most actively traded stock on the Big Board.

A lot of buying and selling going on, but the stock stayed in a narrow range of $33.80 to $34. Of the top ten most active stocks on the NYSE, it had by far the smallest percentage point change in share price.

How do you spell stability? G-E