New York Stock Exchange is investigating ‘technical issue’ that temporarily halted some trading

New York
CNN
—

The New York Stock Exchange is investigating why trading was halted for dozens of companies shortly after the market opened on Tuesday.

Big names affected included Verizon, McDonalds, Morgan Stanley, AT&T and Nike to the NYSE.

Many of those stocks made big moves just minutes into the morning trading session, sending companies like Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley into a nosedive.

Morgan Stanley briefly dropped to $84.93 after finishing at $97.13 on Monday before recovering. McDonalds and Walmart also fell more than 12% before trading was halted. Those declines may have led to volatility stops on the stock market.

NYSE and most other major exchanges issue automatic stops on stocks that move dramatically up and down.

In May 2010, the Dow collapsed in a flash crash, before recovering dramatically. A report from US regulators later said the huge reversal was the result of high-frequency trading activity following a massive trade by a single market participant. That led to a number of regulatory changes to protect stock markets, including a limit-up-limit-down mechanism that prevents individual stocks from trading outside a specific price range.

But exchange officials can also stop trading if there is a technical problem. Last fall, three Canadian stock exchanges had a 40-minute outage due to a connectivity issue prior to the show was able to isolate and repair the problem.

By 9:50 a.m. ET Tuesday, all affected companies on the NYSE had resumed trading, according to a status report from the NYSE that said all systems are currently operational.

NYSE officials told CNN the exchange continues to investigate issues with today’s opening auction.

In an emailed statement, exchange officials said opening auctions have not taken place for a number of stocks. The exchange, they wrote, works to clarify which stocks were affected.

Affected member firms may consider filing Clearly Erroneous or Rule 18 Claims, she added, meaning firms that saw their shares discontinued can seek compensation for losses due to NYSE system failures.