York Stock Exchange

TORONTO - Ravelston Corp., the holding company owned by Conrad Black that he uses to control his newspaper businesses, offered about $61 million to buy Hollinger Inc. in a bid yesterday to take it private. The purchase would allow Black, a British lord who has been battling minority shareholders for control of his newspapers, to extricate himself from at least some of the disputes. He has been feuding with minority investors since May last year, when Tweedy Browne Co. accused him of using his network of holdings to enrich himself.

NEW YORK -- Less than a block from Grand Central Station, a new stock market is being born. It doesn't employ hundreds of shouting traders, have a slick Madison Avenue advertising campaign or fancy offices. Instead, a tangle of gray computer and phone wires hangs from the ceiling, secondhand desks abut each other and employees in the sales group, help desk, operations and marketing departments are jammed into a small white room tucked away from the bustling crowd on East 42nd Street. "We do have a Renoir on the wall," quipped Alfred R. Berkeley III, chairman of Pipeline Trading Systems LLC, noting a cheap framed print of a painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir that hangs in a corner.

A year ago today, the New York Stock Exchange was an institution under siege after the tumultuous departure of its chairman, Richard Grasso, over his nearly $190 million pay package. Since then, the exchange has brought in new leadership, redrafted its constitution and moved to modernize the trading process. But today the Grasso affair remains one of the most controversial legacies the Big Board has had to wrestle with in the past year. Protracted litigation is expected to continue, headed by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Jittery investors sold stocks heavily yesterday in reaction to record oil prices and other negative indicators, pushing two major market indexes to lows for the year. Crude-oil futures set a record high yesterday in New York, hitting $44.41 a barrel, as tax-related problems continued to mount for the Russian energy giant OAO Yukos Oil Co. A potent mix of other dour information - from new terrorism warnings to unexpectedly weak consumer spending and job creation in June - also cast a pall.

CHICAGO - Richard A. Grasso, who was ousted last year as chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, struck back yesterday, suing the exchange for at least $50 million. Grasso, who said he would donate any money received from the lawsuit to charity, claims the exchange breached his contracts from 1999 and 2003 and owes him severance and other payments because, he said, he was terminated without cause. He also seeks damages for "the injury to his reputation and standing in the community, personal humiliation, mental anguish and suffering."

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. stock dropped by nearly 8 percent yesterday, a day after the Hampstead-based men's clothing manufacturer disclosed that it had been subpoenaed by the New York attorney general. The stock closed at $30.97, down $2.64, or 7.85 percent. Nearly 1 million shares traded, more than double the stock's typical volume. It remains unclear why Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sought documents related to Bank's advertising and in-store promotions, analysts who follow the company said yesterday.

NEW YORK - New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed a civil lawsuit yesterday against the former chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard A. Grasso, contending that the $187.5 million pay package awarded by the Big Board was "wholly inappropriate and illegal." In addition to Grasso, who was forced to step down as head of the exchange last September when details of his compensation package were disclosed, Spitzer sued Kenneth G. Langone, the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange compensation committee, and the exchange itself.

NEW YORK - U.S. stocks fell yesterday after a report on new-home sales added to speculation that the Federal Reserve may increase interest rates because of an improving economy. Computer-related stocks led the decline. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 28.11, or 0.3 percent, to 10,444.73, after three consecutive daily gains. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 5.07, or 0.5 percent, to 1135.53, its first drop in four days. The Nasdaq composite index fell 13, or 0.6 percent, to 2036.

NEW YORK - Regulators have broadened their inquiry into the pay package of Richard A. Grasso, former chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, and they expect to sue him by the end of the month in an effort to recoup some of the money, people involved in the investigation said. The regulators recently sent subpoenas to former directors of the Big Board who approved the largest pay deals for Grasso. Before that, they had focused on Grasso and Kenneth G. Langone, compensation committee chairman during the years when Grasso's pay was highest.

News Corp., Rupert Murdoch's mammoth global media company, said yesterday that it intends to reincorporate in the United States from Australia, where it has been domiciled since 1949, when Sir Keith Murdoch, Murdoch's father, began to buy up interests in Australian newspapers. The company said it will shift its primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange while retaining secondary listings in Australia and on the London Stock Exchange. Two classes of News Corp. stock are traded in the United States, but as American depository receipts (ADRs)