Ticker Talk

Energy stocks have been very popular this year, so will investors snap up a new energy-related initial public offering? Universal Compression (ticker symbol: UCO), a Houston-based firm that offers equipment and services to the natural gas industry, will begin trading today on the NYSE. The company on Tuesday sold seven million shares at $22 each. Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney underwrote the deal. . . . The New York Stock Exchange’s privatization plans keep getting farther and farther down the road: NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso said Tuesday the exchange’s plan to become a shareholder-owned private company probably won’t happen “until the second half of next year,” if then. Meanwhile, plans to create Europe’s biggest stock market cleared a key hurdle Tuesday when the Frankfurt Stock Exchange signed off on merging with the London Stock Exchange in an effort to rival Wall Street.