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Markets: A stock market’s disastrous IPO; Jobs: Bernanke says market remains weak; World Bank: Praise for a surprise nominee; Companies: Kraft snacks get a name change; Banks: Dodging Dodd-Frank regulations

Markets: A stock market’s disastrous IPO

“The stock market claimed an unlikely victim” last week, said Michael J. de la Merced and Ben Protess in The New York Times. “One of its own.” BATS Global Markets, the third-largest electronic stock exchange in the U.S., was forced to withdraw its initial public offering hours after its debut when a series of technical glitches gummed up its trading system. The errors, which affected stocks with symbols A through BFZZZ, not only pushed the stock price of BATS (which stands for Better Alternative Trading System) from $16 to less than a cent per share; it also led to a temporary trading halt in Apple shares after they plummeted 9 percent. It was a stunning turn of events for the high-frequency exchange, which handles 11 percent of U.S. trading volume. “My heart goes out to the guys,” says Larry Tabb, who runs a financial research firm. “On the biggest day of their corporate history, their own platform backfired.”

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