The New York Stock Exchange is urgently investigating a ‘technical issue’ that has caused dozens of billion dollar stocks to list at up to 99 percent price losses.
Stocks listed on the NYSE, such as Berkshire Hathaway, GameStop, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Barrick Gold, were halted for volatility on Monday morning.
Berkshire shares were shown to be down 99.97% – with their Class A stock listed as trading at just $185.10.
There were less than 4,000 recorded trades for Berkshire’s A-class shares before trading was halted.
Likewise Barrick Gold was displayed as trading at just 25 cents – down 98.5 percent on the day.
And NuScale Power was listed at 13 cents, down 98.5 percent on the day.
Around 50 stocks were affected according to the NYSE website, with some only reporting minor price changes.
NYSE Equities said on Monday it was currently investigating a reported technical issue regarding Limit Up-Limit Down bands, sending dozens of stocks listed on the exchange into volatility pauses.
The LULD mechanism is meant to prevent extraordinary market volatility and extreme price movements in individual securities.
It prevents trading from occurring outside of specific price bands that are continuously updated throughout the trading day.
The bands are set at a percentage level above and below the average reference price of the security over the immediately preceding five-minute period.
Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading, told CNN: ‘Berkshire, Chipotle and a few others were halted for no apparent reason. Something wacky is happening.’
He added: ‘It’s erroneous trade reports and will get taken from the tape.
‘It’s somebody having a glitch whether its the exchange or a market maker.’