Self-Regulatory Organizations; The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC; Notice of Designation of a Longer Period for Commission Action on Proposed Rule Change To Establish “Benchmark Orders” Under NASDAQ Rule 4751(f)

On May 1, 2012, The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC (“NASDAQ” or “Exchange”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”), pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”) and Rule 19b-4 thereunder, a proposed rule change to establish various “Benchmark Orders” under NASDAQ Rule 4751(f). The proposed rule change was published for comment in the Federal Register on May 17, 2012. The Commission received no comments on the proposal.

Section 19(b)(2) of the Act provides that, within 45 days of the publication of notice of the filing of a proposed rule change, or within such longer period up to 90 days as the Commission may designate if it finds such longer period to be appropriate and publishes its reasons for so finding or as to which the self-regulatory organization consents, the Commission shall either approve the proposed rule change, disapprove the proposed rule change, or institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule change should be disapproved. The 45th day for this filing is July 1, 2012. The Commission is extending this 45-day time period.

The Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to take action on the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposal. The Benchmark Order would allow NASDAQ members to enter a single order in a single security that seeks to match the performance of one of three selected benchmarks—Volume Weighted Average Price, Time Weighted Average Price and Percent of Volume—over a pre-determined period of time. Benchmark Orders would not be executed by the NASDAQ matching engine, but would be directed to a system application dedicated to processing Benchmark Orders (“Application”). The Application would generate Child Orders to be sent to the NASDAQ matching engine or to the NASDAQ router, as necessary, to achieve the desired benchmark selected by the entering firm.

Accordingly, the Commission, pursuant to Section 19(b)(2) of the Act, designates August 15, 2012, as the date by which the Commission should either approve or disapprove or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove the proposed rule change.