(AP) - On the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a date often repeated as 9-11, the numbers that popped up for the New York Lottery were 9-1-1. <b>"The numbers were picked in the standard random fashion using all the same protocols," said Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman. "It's just the way the numbers came up."</b>
=DJ Was S&P Futures Close At 911 Tuesday Just A Coincidence?
By Kristina Zurla
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--In an ironic twist, the September Standard & Poor's 500
futures contract closed Tuesday at 911.00 - a day ahead of the one-year anniversary
of the infamous terrorist attacks.
There was some buzz on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange stock index futures trading
floor Wednesday about why this occurred, but there were no reports of widespread
collusion or price-fixing going on.
<b> "It was bizarre, it was strange, but it wasn't manufactured," said Richard Canlione,
vice president of institutional financial futures at Salomon Smith Barney. "It
was just the rules of coincidence affecting open outcry trade. That's just where
the market was." </b>
While some CME traders reported there were notable offers to sell as the market
approached 912.00, anyone trying to force the market to actually print a settlement
of 911.00 exactly would face an extremely difficult task in a market so large,
and liquid.
"It just proves the market God was with us, remembering the day, too," said one
CME trader.
The start of trading was delayed Wednesday in honor of those killed in last year's
attacks that hit the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania.
Market players noted prices were already moving higher throughout Tuesday after
two prior up days, so it wasn't like an abrupt change in direction took place to
achieve the numerical equivalent of Sept. 11.
Some thought perhaps suspicious activity could have taken place, but most brushed
it off as a "patriotic rally" and didn't seem the harm in it.
"I'm always kinda paranoid, and I find the fact that we settled there kind of
eerie, but I don't think we should dwell on it or read too much into it," said
Tim Haefke, a stock index futures trader and president of Top-Notch Trading.
-By Kristina Zurla, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4132;
Of interest. bold mine.