A technical glitch is being blamed for a chaotic open at the New York Stock Exchange Monday morning that apparently triggered crashes in the quoted prices of shares of several companies, including Berkshire Hathaway.
The New York Stock Exchange halted trading in shares of several companies and said it is investigating what it described as a “technical issue.”
“NYSE Equities is currently investigating a reported technical issue. Additional information will follow as soon as possible,” the NYSE said in a notice on its website at 9:52 a.m.
Shortly after the exchange open for cash trades on Monday morning, Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares plummeted by a staggering 99.97 percent, triggering a halt in trading. The shares, which are usually priced in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, were frozen at $185.10. Warren Buffett owns about 40 percent of the Class A shares.
In contrast, Berkshire’s Class B shares, which are more commonly traded, only dipped by 0.97 percent to $410.36 and continued to trade normally.
The glitch didn’t stop there. Barrick Gold shares saw a precipitous drop of more than 98 percent, falling to a mere $0.25 before being halted at approximately 9:56 a.m. Shares of Bank of Montreal fell from around $88 to $0.77 before being halted. Shares of Logistical Properties of the Americas, a real estate company with properties in South and Central America, fell from $125 to $75.