Dozens of major stocks on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) tripped their limit up, limit down circuit breakers, leading to temporary trading halts immediately after Tuesday's opening bell. The volatile moves, which NYSE said were caused by a technical issue, were initiated beginning shortly after at 9:30 a.m. ET. Trading had resumed by 9:45 a.m. for most of the affected companies.
The NYSE mishap affected 90 tickers including McDonald's, AT&T, Raytheon, Nike, Exxon Mobile, Morgan Stanley and Verizon. Many of the companies reported earnings results Tuesday morning which sparked some volatile moves.
Most of those stocks show wide, wild trading ranges during the first 15 minutes of the session. NYSE's limit up, limit down (LULD) will generally halt trade for most stocks if they surge up or down more than 5% in less than 30 seconds.
The issue was contained to the NYSE, prompted by a reporting error due to "data being posted to tape incorrectly," Axios reporter Hope King tweeted. The Intercontinental Exchange (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the NYSE parent company, did not immediately respond for a comment on the cause at the time of publication.
An email at 11:20 a.m. ET from NYSE representative Bridget Walsh said, "the exchange is investigating reported issues with the opening auction. All NYSE systems are currently operational."
An 10:57 a.m. ET update on the company site said, "in a subset of symbols, opening auctions did not occur. The exchange is working to clarify the list of symbols. Impacted member firms may consider filing for Clearly Erroneous or Rule 18 Claims. "
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average pared its early loses to trade a fraction higher near midday. The S&P 500 whittled its loss to 0.1%. And the Nasdaq composite index was down not quite 0.1%. The largest moves among S&P 500 stocks included a 3.8% gain for Paccar and a 5% decline for 3M — both moves followed company earnings.
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