Business Notes WALL STREET

Has program trading been tamed? The practice, which many investors suspect of contributing to last October's crash, has at least simmered down. In the first of a series of monthly program-trading reports, the New York Stock Exchange said last week that such transactions during July amounted to only 10.1% of the Big Board's volume. That percentage has declined from a level of 15% to 20% a year ago, according to some estimates.

Since the crash, many legislators have urged a clampdown on program trading, in which large blocks of stocks and futures contracts are simultaneously traded to reap a quick profit from price discrepancies. The Big Board has imposed its own safeguard: a ban on the practice whenever the Dow Jones industrial average falls more than 50 points in one session. But the new study is likely to ease the pressure for more controls. Said Robert Kirby, a Los Angeles money manager who has attacked program trading in the past: "If the numbers stay like this, it may go away as an issue." Should it not, critics will know whom to blame. The report showed that more than half of all program trading was carried out by just three firms: Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns.