* The Pacific Exchange was sued Wednesday by investors for allegedly conspiring to fix the price of trading options in the nation’s third-largest options market. The suit, the second to be

filed against the Pacific in as many weeks, follows reports of a Justice Department probe into whether the nation’s options exchanges are complying with federal antitrust laws. Investors

accused San Francisco-based Pacific of conspiring with other exchanges to unlawfully limit the trading of certain options to a single exchange and inflate the overall cost of trading.

Pacific spokesman Dale Carlson declined to comment. MORE TO READ