SEC's new disclosure rules cause much head scratching.

The federal Securities and Exchange Commission's new rules on fair disclosure took effect this week, but it will take several weeks for companies to figure out how to deal with new rules, said sources familiar with the issue.

What the SEC's rules are designed to do is discourage companies from giving stock analysts and big investors news about the company before that knowledge is made, public to the investment community at large.

Local companies already are responding by making quarterly-analyst conference calls available to all interested parties, not just the financial community They also will issue business forecasts along with earnings releases, set up schedules of when business forecasts will be updated and limit the number of people who discuss the company's business outlook.

Specifically, the rules are designed primarily to address the issue of "selective disclosure by [stock] issuers of material. nonpublic information."

Selective disclosure has always been against the law, said Peggy Noto, a partner with …