Nasdaq OMX is getting into the business of supplying economic news in titbits that are digestible by trading algorithms, part of the exchange company's effort to broaden its trading-related services at a time when stock volumes are down.

The New York-based company announced Monday a deal to buy RapiData a provider of so-called machine-readable news, which will see Nasdaq OMX electronically pump US government indicators and other economic data directly to the automated trading systems of customers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.