A software update may have triggered the NYSE trading halt

Stocks closed with sizable losses Wednesday after a technical outage forced the New York Stock Exchange to halt trading for half the day. Trading exchanges have long struggled with technical troubles.

The New York Stock Exchange halted all trading midway through its Wednesday session. The Wall Street Journal reported that the S&P 500 and other stock indexes were little changed from where they were before NYSE trading stopped. “The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyberbreach”. The rise of electronic exchanges and trading – including at the NYSE – have not just replaced the reliance on a single exchange, but improved upon it. So when the NYSE halted – trading magically swerved around the NYSE can kept going practically without missing a beat. Separately, the vice minister of public security paid a visit to the securities watchdog’s office to investigate short selling, Xinhua said Thursday.

NYSE, owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), said the outage was not caused by a cyber attack.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 261.49 points (1.47 per cent) to 17,515.42. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.3 percent to 19,480.91 and South Korea’s Kospi slid 1.2 percent to 1,992.91. A flaw in 2012 that led to massive unintended share purchases nearly put Knight Capital Group, one of the biggest market-makers in America at the time, out of business.

A federal law enforcement source told CBS2 the feds are monitoring the situation. Angel sat on the board of exchange company Direct Edge before it was acquired by a larger rival previous year.

“With China, investors fear that could be indicative of a broader economic weakness”, said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Getting back up and running prior to the 4 p.m. close was important for the market structure role the NYSE plays, Farley said.

Other exchanges remained operational, meaning that investors could still trade, just not on the NYSE. He says the disruption didn’t cause any problems for the global markets.

That wouldn’t have been possible years ago when the Corinthian-columned New York Stock Exchange, a symbol of American capitalism, dominated stock trading.