8220 Technical issue 8221 halts Nasdaq trading

Nasdaq trading stopped for three hours yesterday.


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By :  ,  Financial Analyst

Trading on the Nasdaq was stopped for three hours yesterday (August 23rd) by a technical problem on the index.

A glitch prevented traders from working on the second-largest stock exchange in the US for three hours, although the other US exchanges were unaffected by the event.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is planning to hold a meeting with Nasdaq in the wake of the incident.

"Today's interruption in trading, while resolved before the end of the day, was nonetheless serious and should reinforce our collective commitment to addressing technological vulnerabilities of exchanges and other market participants," SEC chair Mary Jo White said.

Despite the three-hour stoppage of trading on the index, the Nasdaq closed up by one per cent.

Apple and Facebook are two of the biggest stocks to be traded on the Nasdaq, which saw trading halted at 12:14 EST due to the technical problem.

The former firm's stocks have jumped in value of late after it was revealed that billionaire investor Carl Icahn – one of the company's major stockholders – had held a meeting with its chief executive Tim Cook.

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