NASDAQ To Eliminate Quote Update Fee

The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. (NASDAQ®) today announced that it has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a proposal to eliminate the charges for quotation updates, as well as non-directed and preferenced order cancels. The goal is to lower the overall cost of market participants' use of the new SuperMontage trading system. The elimination of the charges will be effective on February 3, 2003.

"We believe that eliminating quote update and order cancellation charges increases the value proposition of NASDAQ. We have already experienced an increase in the depth of liquidity since implementing SuperMontage and expect that the reduced cost will lead even more participants to enter more orders into the system," said Dean Furbush, Executive Vice President of NASDAQ Transaction Services. "We expect that the elimination of the quote update fee will benefit all market participants that directly or indirectly post their trading interest in NASDAQ and add liquidity to the market."

NASDAQ (OTCBB:NDAQ) is the world's largest electronic stock market. With approximately 3,700 companies, NASDAQ lists more companies and trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to category-defining companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, media and biotechnology industries. NASDAQ is a key driver of capital formation. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at www.NASDAQ.com or the NASDAQ NewsroomSM at www.NASDAQnews.com.