E-brokerages function normally
Despite high trading volume, online brokerage sites functioned at or near normal levels on the Monday following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, according to Keynote Systems Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., company that tracks Web site performance.
The study looked at the transaction performance—how long it takes for users to place orders—and the availability—the percentage of times a transaction is successfully completed—for 13 top online brokerages.
Compared with their previous weeks performance, the sites performance was off, on average, by only about a second: from 9.4 seconds to 10.7 seconds. Availability declined from 97.9 percent to 92.2 percent.
Corporate travel in holding pattern
Corporate travelers are likely to become even scarcer in the air following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. A majority of corporate travel managers, 58 percent, say they plan to reduce future travel, according to a survey conducted a week after the tragedy by the National Business Travel Association, of Alexandria, Va. Twenty-three percent of travel managers were unsure of their plans, while 19 percent werent planning reductions.
Alternatives to air travel also are looking more promising to travel managers. Eighty-eight percent said they planned to increase their use of videoconferencing, and 65 percent plan to use more rental cars for shorter trips, the NBTA found.