NYSE expects all U.S. stocks to have circuit breakers

All U.S. stocks will probably be subject to so-called circuit breakers by the end of this year, Duncan Niederauer, chief executive officer of stock exchange operator NYSE Euronext (NYX.N)(NYX.PA), said on Thursday.

The circuit breakers, a mechanism to halt trading in a stock for five minutes if it falls more than 10 percent within five minutes, will initially apply to stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 index (.SPX) under the Securities and Exchange Commission's plan with major exchanges and market watchdog FINRA.

Niederauer suggested the circuit breakers also apply to exchange-traded funds, something the SEC has said may happen later.

Speaking in Shanghai, from where the New York Stock Exchange will be remotely opened on Thursday, Niederauer also said he expected China to allow foreign companies to list on its stock markets by the end of this year or early next year.

China plans to allow domestic listings of overseas firms as part of efforts to deregulate its capital markets.

Chief Operating Officer Larry Leibowitz told Reuters in March that NYSE Euronext hoped to be one of the first foreign companies to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, but the process has been slow.

NYSE Euronext, created in 2007 after the combination of NYSE Group and Euronext N.V., is the world's most liquid equities exchange group and home to some of the world's biggest companies