Surge of Computer Selling After Apparent Glitch Sends Stocks Plunging

[tommywho70x]

High-Speed Trading Glitch Costs Investors Billions - NYTimes.com

makes me wonder how many people were being moved by ding-ins from their microsoft office money advisor outlook alert managers.

word up! eject! eject! eject!

 

[tommywho70x]

taken together these two articles tell me that some people lost a whole lot of money yesterday and some got a few really exceptional bargains and all the brokers got their slice off every transaction.


Global financial crisis flares again
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Big News Network.com Thursday 6th May, 2010

Just as confidence was returning to world markets, and economies had begun to rebound, along came the Greek debt crisis
Lawmakers in Greece, the European Union, and even the IMF, have taken great strides to contain the growing crisis, however jittery markets by Thursday had lost confidence in the ability of the authorities to bring the situation under control.

Global markets have been under pressure for some weeks while the euro had dived below the 1.3000 level. On Thursday the nervousness evolved into panic reminiscent of that black Thursday in October 1929 which heralded in The Great Depression. In New York in the late afternoon Thursday investors waded into the market to send stocks plunging.

Wall Street reeled on Thursday shedding 700 points in just a quarter-hour of trading. Around 2:40pm the Dow Jones industrials were down 998.50 points, the index's worst ever intra-day decline. Other indices were also sharply lower. The volatility was immense. Just as markets seemed to capitulate however, buyers overwhelmed sellers sending the Dow up more than 600 points in just twenty minutes. The moves were so dramatic the major exchanges were investigating whether a system error had occurred. Financial shares, particularly banks, and tech stocks, were hardest hit on the way down, while buyers clamoured for the same stocks when the rebound came.

As trading continued on into the final hour on Thursday U.S. stocks had recovered more than two thirds of their earlier losses.

Confidence however has been shattered and the global financial crisis, which had been almost declared dead, had flared again. It may well be a taste of things to come.

At the close of trading Thursday the Dow Jones Industrials, which had been down more than 8% earlier, were down 346.51 points or 3.19% at 10,520.32. The Nasdaq Composite was off 82.65 points or 3.44% at 2,319.64. The Standard and Poor's 500 was down 37.72 points or 3.24% at 1,128.15. The euro was down about three cents to 1.2615, after being well below 1.2600 at one stage.

“The SEC and CFTC are working closely with the other financial regulators, as well as the exchanges, to review the unusual trading activity that took place briefly this afternoon. We are also working with the exchanges to take appropriate steps to protect investors pursuant to market rules," the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said in a statement released late Thursday afternoon.

“We will make public the findings of our review along with recommendations for appropriate action,” the SEC and CFTC statement added