Stocks have finished with sizable losses, on a day that saw the New York Stock Exchange shut down for half the day by a technical outage. The troubles didn't extend to the dozens of other exchanges that also trade U.S. stocks. The Dow industrials lost 261 points. Trading was halted at about 11:30 a.m. EST Wednesday and resumed at 3:10 p.m.
Before trading was halted, U.S. indexes were lower as investors worried about China's ability to stem a stock market slide.
Aaron Elstein covers the markets for Crain's New York. He told WNYC small glitches happen all the time.
"What's notable about this is the length of it, not the fact that it happened," Elstein said.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 261 points, or 1.5 percent, to 17,515.
The Standard & Poor's 500 gave up 34 points, or 1.7 percent, at 2,046 and the Nasdaq was down 87 points, or 1.8 percent, at 4,909.
European markets were broadly higher as talks continue on Greece's debt woes.
(1 of 3) The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyber breach.
— NYSE (@NYSE) July 8, 2015
(2 of 3) We chose to suspend trading on NYSE to avoid problems arising from our technical issue.
— NYSE (@NYSE) July 8, 2015
(3 of 3) NYSE-listed securities continue to trade unaffected on other market centers.
— NYSE (@NYSE) July 8, 2015
The NYSE didn't say what the problem was but described it as internal and not the result of hackers.
The White House said that President Barack Obama has been briefed on the technical issue that has halted trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Spokesman Josh Earnest said there is no indication of "malicious actors" and said, "The administration is keenly aware of the risk that exists in cyber space right now."
Mary Jo White, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission said in an 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."
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade group that represents financial firms, said it is monitoring the situation with its members.
To listen to a full interview with Elstein, click audio above.
