Mikey Campbell
A problem traced back to the mishandling of daily Nasdaq test data caused the reported share prices of Apple, Google, Microsoft and a handful of other technology sector stocks to fluctuate wildly on multiple financial websites after trading ended on Monday.
According to Reuters, stock price queries for Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, eBay and others returned the same $123.47 result, which in some cases amounted to a more than 80 percent loss in value. For companies like Apple, shares appeared to have more than doubled.
The inaccurate market data, impacting a small number Nasdaq stocks, went live on websites and trading platforms including Yahoo Finance, Google Finance and Bloomberg Terminal at around 6:30 p.m. Eastern.
Nasdaq confirmed to AppleInsider that the wide price variance was not caused by an internal glitch. Further, actual stock prices were not affected by the reporting error and no trades were accomplished at the erroneous prices. The exchange is currently investigating the issue.
While details have yet to be made public, prices for about 16 companies generated by Nasdaq's unlisted trading privileges (UTP) service, which sends out test data on a daily basis, went live on various financial reporting websites, Business Insider reports. The test information was wrongly disseminated by Bloomberg and a "few other providers," a Nasdaq spokesman told Bloomberg's news service.
"As part of its normal process, the UTP distributed normal test data, and certain third parties improperly consumed and propagated that data. Nasdaq is working with UTP and third parties to resolve the matter," the Nasdaq spokesman said.
As noted by Reuters, Nasdaq and other U.S. stock exchanges closed early today ahead of the Independence Day holiday on Tuesday. Whether the mistake is related to the day's early closure is unknown.
Actual stock prices have since replaced the incorrect figures.
Update: This article has been updated with clarifying information from Nasdaq.
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9 Comments
Much ado about nothing.
Darn. I thought exciting ARKit demos made Apple's share price double. However, I knew nothing is going to make FANG stock prices decrease. Those stocks are impervious to share price losses. It would have been nice if today's glitch merely showed a quick glimpse of the near future.
Apple's share price did not appear to double. It appeared to loose about $20.
It seems that only a few sources made this mistake but it spread - I spotted it at the head of the 9to5Mac home page. I checked a better source and confirmed it was an error.