Americans explore London stock market deal

The NASDAQ stock market in New York -- the world's second biggest after Wall Street -- is considering an alliance with the London Stock Exchange.

It's also in talks with other European exchanges, with a view to possibly creating a pan-European share trading system linked, through NASDAQ, to the United States market.

The head of NASDAQ International said it made profound sense for his company and the London Stock Exchange to do a deal.

The BBC Economics Correspondent says many big investment managers would like to have a single forum for trading shares across Europe.

He says they would also welcome a more formal link between the European and US stock markets.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service