July 4 (UPI) — A computer glitch sent several tech companies’ stock prices to the same number on sites reporting Nasdaq information late Monday.
Erroneous prices showed up on the websites that included CNNMoney, Bloomberg and Google Finance in after-hours trading.
The shares were all listed at $123.47 — meaning Apple fell 14.3 percent and Amazon dropped 87 percent but Microsoft jumped 79.1 percent and eBay climbed 254 percent. Video game developer Zynga went up 3,292 percent.
For Amazon, that would have meant a $398 billion drop in market capitalization.
But the prices didn’t really drop that much and trades went through at the proper prices and were correctly reflected on Nasdaq’s website. Also, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange were not affected.
The new prices triggered halts in many of the stocks in after-hours trading.
One day before the Fourth of July holiday, U.S. markets had closed early.
How did it happen?
Nasdaq said in a posting late Monday the wrong prices came from test data it sends as part of “normal evening test procedures” but it was “improperly” used by third-party companies that supply information to websites.
Earlier on Twitter, Nasdaq posted it is “working with third-party vendors to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.
By early Tuesday, the correct data was appearing on the websites affected.
