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Pastimes : The Justa & Lars Honors Bob Brinker Investment Club -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Justa Werkenstiff who wrote (11520)	1/29/2000 6:36:00 PM
From: Justa Werkenstiff	Respond to of 15132

SEC Studying Recent Surge in Buying Stock on Margin, WSJ Says Washington, Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, at the request of the Federal Reserve, is studying the recent increase in investors' buying stock on margin using money borrowed from brokerage firms, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unnamed SEC official. Margin debt at New York Stock Exchange firms increased 25 percent to $229 billion in November and December while the value of the stock market itself grew by just 11 percent, the Journal said. A Fed spokesman wouldn't comment on the SEC statement though Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said in testimony before Congress Wednesday that the rise in margin debt ''has created a good deal of evaluation on our part,'' and reiterated his opposition to raising the margin requirement, the paper said. On Wednesday, at his confirmation hearing for his fourth term as Fed chairman, Greenspan said ''the reason over that years that we have been reluctant to use the margin authority we currently have, is that all of the studies have suggested that the level of stock prices have nothing to do with margin requirements.''