--Nasdaq cancels premarket trades in nine companies
--Big names affected include Goldman, Citigroup and AT&T
--Exchange busts trades from 9:29 a.m. through 9:30 a.m. EST
marked at more than 10% from Wednesday's closing price
(Updates with additional information throughout.)
By Kaitlyn Kiernan
NEW YORK--Some premarket trades in nine closely watched
companies were canceled Thursday, including Citigroup Inc. (C),
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ),
according to a trader notice from Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ).
An order was submitted based on bad numbers that appeared on a
data feed shared by all U.S. exchanges, according to people
familiar with the trading glitch. It wasn't clear from where the
bad data originated.
Nasdaq canceled all trades in nine companies that were executed
at more than 10% above or below Wednesday's closing values in the
minute before markets opened Thursday, according to the notice. The
decision followed an earlier announcement that Nasdaq was looking
into potentially erroneous trading activity between 9:29 a.m. and
9:30 a.m. EST in more than a dozen companies.
Stocks are eligible for trading on Nasdaq starting at 8 a.m.
EST, an hour-and-a-half before the traditional trading day
begins.
After first advising traders to look into activity that could be
"clearly erroneous," Nasdaq later said the exchange "will be
canceling trades on the participants behalf," according to its
notice to traders.
A New York Stock Exchange representative said it wasn't affected
and isn't canceling any trades. Spokesmen from BATS Global Markets
and Direct Edge said separately that those two exchanges didn't
have trades affected.
Other companies who saw trades canceled in their shares include
AT&T Inc. (T), Western Union Co. (WU), Wells Fargo & Co.
(WFC), Kroger Co. (KR), Ventas Inc. (VTR) and Sprint Nextel Corp.
(S).
It was the second time this week that issues have arisen
regarding trading ahead of the market's 9:30 a.m. EST open. On
Wednesday, confusion over dividend payments to holders of shares of
fiber-optics firm Tellabs Inc. (TLAB) was suspected to be behind
sharp swings in its shares. Some investors appeared to think the
cutoff for receiving the dividend was this week as opposed to later
this month.
Write to Kaitlyn Kiernan at kaitlyn.kiernan@dowjones.com
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