Systems problems caused NYSE to halt trading but investors shifted to other venues.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) resumed trading Wednesday (July 8) afternoon after suspending trading for three-and-a-half hours when officials realized that IT system glitches were impacting transactions.
Exchange officials announced at 3:14 p.m. that trading had resumed at 3:05 p.m. for NYSE MKT for primaries only, and at 3:10 p.m. for NYSE and NYSE MKT, tape C.
“Closing auctions will continue as normal,” NYSE officials added. “The previously reported issue has been resolved. … The Openbook feed for NYSE MKT primary markets will remain unavailable for the remainder of the day. Customers are advised to use market data from the SIP feed.”
The shutdown impacted NYSE’s market data offerings, post-trade services, market feeds, testing, reporting and the Common Customer Gateway (CCG), officials say.
At 11:04 a.m., exchange officials began investigating technical issues with NYSE and NYSE MKT and by 11:32 a.m., trading in all symbols was suspended and all orders were cancelled, officials say.
Trading via NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex/Arca options was unaffected by the shutdown, and equities trading was facilitated by NYSE Arca, officials say.
Before trading was resumed, Thomas Farley, NYSE president, said on CNBC that he made the decision to halt trading and cancel orders because of systems issues that were cropping up by mid-morning. He also said the exchange decided to take the time it needed to bring back trading by 3 p.m. before the market close at 4 p.m. EST.
The trading halt did not bring on a global trading panic because of the fragmentation of trading venues, say industry observers. The exchange itself acknowledged that fact when it posted via Twitter: “NYSE-listed securities continue to trade unaffected on other market centers.”
The exchange reported that it had dealt with systems problems before the trading day started. After the halt, exchange officials quickly dispelled concerns that the problems were related to cyberattacks.
“The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyber breach,” NYSE officials said via a Twitter posting.
Regulators have been alerted and SEC Chair Mary Jo White issued the following statement: “We are in contact with NYSE and are closely monitoring the situation and trading in NYSE-listed stocks. While NYSE is working to resolve the situation, NYSE and NYSE MKT stocks continue to trade normally through other trading venues.”
Industry observers say that high-volumes of trading activity caused by Greek default crisis in the Eurozone, and the caving of Chinese financial markets coupled with the inability of the Chinese government to manage the crisis. The broad market selloffs may have stressed NYSE’s systems and thus contributed to the system failures.
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