1.   Antitrust investigators concluded last year that brokers in the Nasdaq market had conspired to keep spreads unreasonably wide, and the SEC changed the rules to encourage narrower spreads.

2.   A narrower spread typically indicates increased investor confidence in a corporate bond.

3.   A narrower spread implies a higher relative price.

4.   A narrower spread suggests investors are demanding a smaller risk premium to invest in gilts rather than bunds.

5.   A narrower spread suggests rising investor expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise short-term interest rates enough to control inflation.

6.   But those narrower spreads may change how business is done.

7.   Executives at several Nasdaq-listed companies say narrower spreads have caused them to change their thinking about possibly leaving the over-the-counter market.

8.   For investors, the narrower spreads between buying and selling quotes offer an opportunity to trade at more favorable prices.

9.   His letter followed a heightened competition for narrower trading spreads that developed among some on Wall Street this spring.

10.   In the past week, investors sold Citicorp, Chase Manhattan Corp. and BankAmerica, partly because of worries about the narrower spread between short-term and long-term interest rates.