Where the rumour is out that Cliffs were retracting their bid friday morning, doesnt this fall under Timely Disclosure and they must issue a release on this immediately?
Demands of Fairness. Specifically, the N.Y.S.E. board of governors ruled that "negotiations leading to acquisitions and mergers, stock splits, the making of arrangements preparatory to an exchange or tender offer, changes in dividend rates or earnings, calls for redemption, new contracts, products or discoveries, are the type of developments where the risk of untimely and inadvertent disclosure of corporate plans is most likely to occur." Such activities may be kept secret by top management, but secrecy is less and less possible because "at some point it usually becomes necessary to involve persons other than top management." At that point, according to the board, "fairness requires that the company make an immediate public announcement."
Policing the policy is the job of N.Y.S.E. Vice President Phillip West. He and his counterparts at the American Stock Exchange have power to recommend a halt in trading when unusual activity may indicate an insider's secret or an unexplained development. The Big Board halted trading in various stocks 720 times last year, sometimes merely to give time for important news to get out.
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,902286,00.html#ixzz0sOdqqpEq
