New York Stock Exchange Shuts Down Due To “Technical Issue”

The New York Stock Exchange temporarily suspended trading in all symbols midday Wednesday because of a "technical issue." A spokesperson for the NYSE said: We’re currently experiencing a technical issue that we’re working to resolve as quickly as possible. We will be providing further updates as soon as we can, and are doing our utmost to produce a swift resolution, communicate thoroughly and transparently, and ensure a timely and orderly market re-open.

The NYSE ceasing all sales and trades on its floor is both highly unusual and unexpected. Normally, the stock exchange will halt trades on a specific company for up to an hour if the company is set to announce big news that could create a significant imbalance between buying and selling.

However, technical glitches like today's are rare. Perhaps one of the most recent instances — which was much less widespread — took place in 2014, when the NYSE halted sales on nine symbols following a hardware problem with one workstation. It's safe to assume that today's tech glitch is a lot bigger than that. The NYSE wasn't the only entity experiencing major technical trouble today. United Airlines was forced to ground flights this morning following a computer glitch that impacted thousands of flights worldwide. In some cases, agents were forced to issue paper tickets, NBC News reported. There is no evidence that the NYSE's and United's computer breakdowns are related. Update 1:23 PM EST:
The NYSE reiterated that this was an internal technical issue, and not related to a hacking or any other sort of malicious activity (it confirmed this to the FBI, as well).

Update 3:00 PM EST:
The NYSE will begin accepting new orders and will resume trading at 3:10pm EST, and closing auctions will continue as normal, Reuters reports. We'll continue to update this post with more information as it becomes available.