Opening Bell

The new phone stocks debut

Many of the brokers and specialists who work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange arrived on the job an hour and a half early last Monday. They were preparing for an avalanche: the start of trading in 1.6 billion shares in eight new companies to be created Jan. 1 by the breakup of American Telephone & Telegraph. At precisely 10 a.m., the opening bell sounded with six swift clangs, and the rush was on. By 10:14, all eight of the new issues had opened, and 1.9 million telephone shares had changed hands.

Interest in the new...

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