Investing.com - The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has rectified a technical glitch that caused a halt in trading for several major stocks and erroneously showed Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) shares down by 99.97%.
According to the NYSE, all impacted stocks have resumed trading and all systems are currently operational. Intercontinental Exchange, NYSE's parent company, confirmed that the glitch was not the result of a cyberattack, according to a senior executive at a major bank in contact with ICE (NYSE:ICE).
An NYSE spokesperson attributed the issue to a technical problem with industry-wide price bands that triggered trading pauses on up to 40 symbols listed on NYSE Group exchanges. The NYSE noted that these price bands are published by the Consolidated Tape Association’s (CTA) Security Information Processor (SIP). The CTA, an industry group, is responsible for publishing real-time trade and quote data.
The CTA disclosed that the issue might be related to a recent software update. To rectify the problem, the group relied on a secondary data center running an older version of the software.
Earlier in the day, trading was paused for dozens of stocks, including Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) and Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company led by renowned investor Warren Buffett. For almost two hours, Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares were erroneously listed as trading at just $185.10, representing a loss of 99.97% from its closing price of $627,400 on Friday.
The NYSE has decided to cancel all "erroneous" trades for Berkshire that occurred between 9:50 am ET and 9:51 am ET at or below $603,718.30. The exchange stated that this decision is not open to appeal and indicated that other trades could also be cancelled.
The technical issue did not seem to impact the broader stock market, which mostly moved lower due to concerns about economic growth. However, a few other stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) experienced minor fluctuations. For example, Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) was briefly displayed as trading at just 25 cents, down 98.5%, but returned to normal by midday. Similarly, Nuscale Power Corp (NYSE:SMR) was listed at 13 cents, down 98.5%, before reopening at $8.29, just 5% down on the day.