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To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (73844)	12/15/1999 12:24:00 PM
From: John Koligman	Respond to of 97611

OT More good news on 'selective disclosure'. Regards, John SEC Will Vote on New Rules Delaying Disclosure to Analysts By ELIZABETH MACDONALD Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to vote today on proposed changes to securities laws that would stop companies from disclosing market-moving information to stock analysts before they release it to the general public. The SEC proposals are expected to force companies to give investors information at the same time stock analysts get them. The new proposals are also expected to make it much easier for the agency to file enforcement actions against companies who violate any eventual rules. Separately, the SEC will also consider changes to insider-trading rules, including whether the agency must prove a person actually used -- and didn't just possess -- nonpublic information when he or she decided to trade securities. The agency is also expected to issue rules tightening the role of corporate-board audit committees, which are supposed to provide an independent check on a company's financial controls. But it is the SEC's new so-called selective disclosure proposal that is likely to draw the most attention, as it comes at a time when companies -- via road shows or secret teleconference calls or closed-door meetings -- increasingly are tipping analysts about material information affecting their share prices. For nearly two years now, the agency has been concerned about this practice, as companies have routinely iced out investors and journalists from potentially market-moving information. Selective disclosure "damages the entire structure of our markets because it deeply shakes" investor confidence, Arthur Levitt, the SEC chairman, has said. In mid-November, the SEC began an inquiry into whether Abercrombie & Fitch Co. selectively disclosed information about its sales trends to at least one Wall Street analyst before making the information public. In October, the men's retailer had disclosed to at least one Wall Street analyst at Lazard Freres & Co. that same-store sales for its fiscal third quarter, which ended Oct. 30, would be sluggish, according to people familiar with the matter. The Reynoldsburg, Ohio, company didn't release the information publicly until an announcement five days later. An Abercrombie & Fitch spokesman at the time said the SEC is "conducting an informal inquiry but no formal inquiry." Paul Wilmot, a company spokesman, Tuesday confirmed the SEC inquiry is under way.