Tag Archives: New York Stock Exchange

Wall Street falls with oil, worries about global economy

NYSE workers

By Caroline Valetkevitch

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks extended losses into a second day on Friday following another drop in oil prices and rising worries about the global economy ahead of Britain’s referendum on whether to stay in the European Union.

Ahead of Britain’s referendum on June 23, a poll showed those in favor of Britain exiting the EU, or “Brexit,” were well ahead of those who favor remaining. The British pound fell against the dollar.

“The inability of the S&P to even hold key resistance tells you the market is not ready to break out to new record highs,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York.

“The global economy is weak and it can’t handle any major shocks. If Brexit occurs, that’s a major shock.”

The S&P energy index <.SPNY> was down 2.2 percent, leading sector losses.

At 3:14 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 165.18 points, or 0.92 percent, to 17,820.01, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 25.36 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,090.12 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 77.64 points, or 1.57 percent, to 4,880.98.

Investors around the world swapped equities for less risky assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds and the Japanese yen. Yields on government bonds fell globally, to record lows in some cases, while the S&P financial index <.SPSY> was down 1.5 percent.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, said Friday investors are dropping risky assets because of falling global GDP expectations, fueled by China’s slowing growth and the intensifying U.S. presidential race.

Some stock investors are betting on a return of the volatility that marked the first two months of the year. The bounce-back in commodity prices that fueled much of the 13.3-percent rally in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index since its February lows is leveling off.

The CME Volatility index <.VIX>, Wall Street’s fear gauge, jumped 17.6 percent.

Among Wall Street’s few bright spots on Friday was Intel <INTC.O>, up 0.4 percent. Bloomberg reported the chipmaker would replace Qualcomm as an Apple <AAPL.O> supplier for some iPhones. Qualcomm <QCOM.O> was down 2.4 percent.

(Additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Nick Zieminski)

New York Stock Exchange Halted By Computer Glitch

Trading at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was suddenly halted around 11:32 a.m. Eastern Time because of what officials termed a “computer glitch.”

The market was down over 200 points (over 1%) at the time of the halt.

“We’re currently experiencing a technical issue that we’re working to resolve as quickly as possible,” Marissa Arnold, an NYSE spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement. “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 Nasdaq reported to problems and said they continue to trade stocks that are listed on the NYSE.

“It’s been a little bit of a bumpy day. We had some technical problems even before the opening,” said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at the NYSE, in a CNBC interview.

“This will not cause a move in any particular direction, so I would kind of wait it out and see what happens,” he added.

The uncertainty about Greece and a massive selling of Chinese stocks were driving the market lower.

The Department of Homeland Security told CNN they found “no sign of malicious activity” at the stock exchange and no sign of a cyberattack.

U.S. Military Not Ready For Cyberwarfare?

The commander of the U.S. Cyber Command told Congress on Thursday that the military is not ready for a major cyber war and that they need to bolster their defenses both for military infrastructure and private business.

“Those attacks are coming and I think those are near term and we’re not ready for them,” said Army Gen. Keith Alexander.  Alexander is also the outgoing director of the National Security Agency.

Alexander told congressmen that the Cyber Command’s 1,100 employees are making progress but are still not ready for a major assault.  Alexander said that attackers are changing plans from short term disruptions to attacks that would cause long lasting damage to critical systems including destruction of machines.

The most major concerns are attacks on the nation’s power supplies or economic systems.  As an example, Alexander mentioned the harm that could be caused should a hacker break into the New York Stock Exchange and destroy their systems.

“While we have increased our own cyber capabilities, the worldwide cyber threat is growing in scale and sophistication, with an increasing number of state and non-state actors targeting U.S. networks on a daily basis,” Admiral Cecil Haney of the U.S. Strategic Command told Congress.