The New York Stock Exchange is slowly moving toward its historic merger with European exchange giant Euronext. The Dutch government holds veto power over the deal and was poised to use it. Now, however, Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm said, in a letter, he would approve the deal as long as any "spillover" of U.S. regulations--read: Sarbanes-Oxley--is excluded. Also, the president of Paris Europlace has given begrudged approval. So it appears that the deal will be go through as planned, creating the first trans-Atlantic exchange company. The hard part lies ahead. How these European venues will be melded into the current service offering will be interesting to see.

For more:
- here's an update from the AP