NEW YORK — The New York Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange announced an alliance Wednesday that extends the NYSE's global reach and could lead to an eventual combination of the world's two largest financial markets.

The broad, non-exclusive agreement announced by NYSE Chief Executive John Thain and TSE President Taizo Nishimuro allows the two stock markets to cooperate on joint developments such as financial products, mutual listings and technology.

The deal comes amid a backdrop of mass consolidation among domestic and global exchanges, highlighted by the NYSE's transformation into the first trans-Atlantic market with its recent acquisition of Paris-based exchange operator Euronext NV. The NYSE Group Inc., which is competing fiercely with the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., just weeks ago announced it had led a team of investors to buy a 20 percent stake in India's largest financial market, the Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange.

The agreement with the TSE gives the New York exchange an entree into the Pacific. It is also a first step toward a possible merger or acquisition between the two exchanges when the TSE becomes a public company in 2009.

Thain made it clear during a news conference Wednesday that the two companies planned some form of combination in the future, saying, "We're also setting the stage for a potential capital linkage."

The two exchanges did not offer any details of what form that would take. But, Nishimuro said at the news conference the two markets needed to secure a broader cooperation or risk being left out as rivals pursue their own deals.

"This is not a merger, it is an intent to explore," he said. "The environment has changed, the world is getting smaller, and the relations between New York and Tokyo should be better defined. We will be the world's first truly global marketplace."