All Nasdaq markets halting trading due to processor issue

CNBC.com ^ | Thursday, 22 Aug 2013 | CNBC

[Mad Dawgg]

Traders waited nervously Thursday for the Nasdaq to begin trading after its largest intra-day shut in recent memory.

"When everyone comes back online at the same time that's when even more dangerous things can happen in the marketplace," said Sal Arnuk, the co-founder of Themis Trading.

The Wall Street Journal pointed to Apple as a good example of the chaos that could ensue. The tech giant's stock plunged shortly before the Nasdaq glitch.

The Nasdaq earlier halted trading in all securities Thursday until further notice due to a problem affecting quote dissemination.

Dozens of publicly traded companies, including high-profile companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Facebook, were showing their shares halted. The Nasdaq status message was time stamped at 12:14:03 ET.

[Mad Dawgg]

Rot ro Relroy...

[Old Sarge]

Ruh roh, Raggy...

[Travis McGee]

(How the story starts).

I used to be a history teacher at a private Christian school in Louisiana. I was in my mid-thirties then, unmarried and unattached. It was June and I was on a road trip, cruising up Interstate 81 through the northeastern corner of Tennessee in my Maxima. I was going to spend the month in Pennsylvania, hiking another 300 miles of the Appalachian Trail. The trail ran 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine, and over previous summers I’d hiked it in sections, from south to north. After a school year spent dealing with self-absorbed and often hysterical teenagers, I was looking forward to the wilderness solitude.

Friday afternoon, and I was scanning the radio dial as I passed the towns and cities. The global banking crisis was in the news; the most serious problems were in Europe. Bank runs of some sort. Lucky for Europe, they ran out the clock at the close of business going into the weekend. But by then the financial contagion had spread to New York, and the stock market closed early after some kind of Wall Street emergency fuses had been blown.

Breathy voices warned of another round of dire world economic consequences, by then a familiar tune. Later news updates reported unspecified problems with the American credit card system. Computer networks were having technical problems. Some cell phone service was down. Spillover from Europe, no doubt. Other problems related to the internet, possibly coinciding with a period of high solar flare activity that affected communication satellites. Plain bad luck and Murphy’s Law were frequently cited. There was even some talk of a possible cyber attack, but of course it was pure speculation. China, Russia, Iran, the usual suspects.

Whatever the cause, the main sticking point seemed to be problems in the international currency markets. The day’s interbank trades could not be resolved; there was too much volatility in the Eurozone as some countries hinted at plans to pull out of the Euro. Financial experts assured their radio audiences that it would all be straightened out by Monday. “Thank God it’s Friday” was a commonly expressed cliché laughed into radio microphones.

And that was my working knowledge of the unfolding events. Radio reports.

[Mad Dawgg]

Black Swan...?

[Don Corleone]

This has to be Bush’s fault, Has to be!!!!

[PAR35]

Translation - you can’t get out until the protected folks do. They can’t keep their story straight as to whether pending orders were cancelled or not.

[Lazamataz]

Your story.

[Travis McGee]

A whole flock of them.

[Travis McGee]

By the time I decided to top off my tank in the northeastern corner of Tennessee, every gas station was taking cash only, with long lines of cars forming. I’d stopped at an ATM before my road trip and had nearly 300 dollars stuffed in my wallet, and I wasn’t worried. I still had a quarter of a tank, so I motored on and a few exits later, just past a cluster of gas stations jammed with vehicles, I pulled into the Regal Inn Motor Lodge and got a room. The Hindu desk clerk was happy to accept cash at below the posted nightly rate.

I figured the credit card situation might be straightened out overnight. I could gas up in the morning after the lines cleared. I was in no hurry; I had all summer. That was my thinking going to bed that night.

Woke up to no power, the TV dead, everything dead that didn’t run on batteries. Anything that depended on the internet, cell service, wireless anything, that was all dead too. My smart phone was brain dead. It could show me some of my old pictures and texts, but it couldn’t make a connection. Same deal in the motel lobby: no power, no wireless connections, no credit cards.

On balance, it wasn’t such a bad location compared to many others places I might have been when the lights went out. I could have been passing through Birmingham or Baltimore. In rural northeastern Tennessee, the typical clients of the Regal Inn were long-haul truckers and families on a budget.

Next door, the Waffle House was still serving food, but only to cash customers. Their emergency generator quickly ran out of fuel. Without electricity, the food in their freezers was defrosting, but their propane tanks still cooked hot. Then the police moved into the restaurant, and the generator was fired up again, presumably with government fuel.

The restaurant was full of cops. Plenty of light inside the big glass windows and plenty of cop cars parked outside made it a safe place. By the third day the new restaurant policy was cops only, and we highway refugees were turned away. Even the parking lot was only for police. A little Alamo, ringed by a wall of police vehicles parked end to end.

[Alas Babylon!]

Love the pic, man!

[Alas Babylon!]

Meant to say, “Love the pic, man, but I want royalties!”

[RedHeeler]

Hecky durn, what could possibly be wrong? These trains always run on time.

[elpadre]

China again???

[BenLurkin]

you can’t get out until the protected folks do

Could be!

[Mad Dawgg]

"Translation - you can’t get out until the protected folks do..."

Yeah if ya think about it a good way to do it.

Announce that trading is halted. then spread massiver amounts of FUD.

Then watch the orders stack up and before trading goes back online you make sure YOUR orders go in the que so as to maximize your profits or minimize your loses etc.

[MeshugeMikey]

lets wait until we hear form the exalted leader to come to a meanigfull conclusion shall we? or is he on vacation again??

[Mr. K]

where’s the rest of that?

[Travis McGee]

I like that title, the combination of two titles are perfect for our time.

[Travis McGee]

Getting a little more polish, it’s 11K words total, should be up on Monday. I’ll post it here too.

[Mad Dawgg]

"lets wait until we hear form the exalted leader to come to a meanigfull conclusion shall we? or is he on vacation again??

Didn't the White House have a meeting of sorts with the SEC Yesterday and the press release mentioned 7 times that the SEC was made up of "independent regulators"...?

Just sayin'...