Manual Error Blamed for Tuesday's Trading Glitch

Rockland Daily Staff

The New York Stock Exchange issued a statement today on yesterday's major trading glitch that caused wild price swings of up to 25 percentage points for some of the biggest U.S. companies in a matter of minutes. 

The error impacted more than 1,300 trades and 84 stocks at the opening of Tuesday's market.

"The root cause was determined to be a manual error involving the Exchange's Disaster Recovery configuration at system start of the day,' the NYSE said in a statement after claiming the issue had been resolved. 

Among those affected were banks, retailers, and industrial companies. According to Yahoo Finance, the rollercoaster ride involved at least 40 S&P 500 Index stocks that were hit with trading halts, including Wells Fargo, which closed Monday at $45.03 and then fell as low as $38.10 before rebounding. Morgan Stanley fell to $84.93 after ending at $97.13 Monday before making up most of the lost ground.

Most of those stocks were halted shortly after the opening and reopened five to 10 minutes later at prices closer to Monday's closing prices. 

A US Securities and Exchange Commission spokesperson stated that the agency is looking into the matter after what appears to be a situation in which the test of the "disaster recovery configuration" that was not supposed to involve using the floor did not reset, causing dozens of stocks to open at prices well above or below the previous day's closing prices.