NEW YORK: All trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was suddenly halted Wednesday for unknown technical reasons.

“The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyber breach,” tweeted NYSE, which suspended trading in all stocks at 11.32am EDT (1532 GMT).

Such outages are extremely rare in US markets. The halt brings up memories of the August 2013 “Flash Freeze” when trading on the Nasdaq was halted for hours.

The USA Today reported the US Department of Homeland Security did not have an official statement about the computer outages. However, the agency said there was no immediate indication of a coordinated cyberattack.

Traders on the NYSE floor were standing around looking at blank trading terminals where no bid or offers were being exchanged. Trading in NYSE-listed stocks was still occurring on other exchanges, including the Nasdaq, NYSE said.

In a statement, the exchange said: “We’re currently experiencing a technical issue that we’re working to resolve as quickly as possible. We will ... ensure a timely and orderly market re-open.”

Trading in stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange can continue even when the NYSE is down. Many stocks trade on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq, not to mention other dedicated electronic networks.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2015

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