31.   Operations of the exchanges are not in question so much as the practices of big brokerages that route some of their stock orders to Boston and elsewhere.

32.   Other big brokerage firms and banks are likely to follow suit.

33.   Other big brokerages were mixed.

34.   Other big brokerages fell.

35.   Sands, who also owns a title insurance company, claims the legislative package would just benefit about a dozen big brokerage companies and not the rank-and-file agents.

36.   That would be the first such drastic cut among big brokerages in Japan.

37.   The alliance represents a direct challenge to big brokerage firms, like Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney and Paine Webber, that have traditionally dominated the retail market.

38.   The big brokerage was barred from selling new government bonds until the end of the year.

39.   The GAO report comes on the heels of a similar report issued by the SEC last May following a two-year investigation at nine big brokerage firms.

40.   The merger could address some concerns among big brokerage firms that executions on the Philadelphia exchange were not as fast as those on other exchanges.