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No, you can’t buy Berkshire stock at a 99% discount

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No, you can’t buy Berkshire stock at a 99% discount

A man looking at a screen at the New York Stock Exchange
Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty Images

  • The NYSE will cancel trades after a glitch caused halts for 40 stocks, including Berkshire Hathaway.
  • The glitch caused Berkshire Hathaway to appear to trade at a 99% discount.
  • The technical issue lasted two hours and was linked to the Consolidated Tape Association’s software.

The New York Stock Exchange said it will cancel trades made after a glitch caused trading halts for 40 stocks on Monday morning — including Berkshire Hathaway, which appeared to trade at a 99% discount.

Class A shares of the Warren Buffett company appeared to trade at $185.10 per share before a trading halt kicked in. Trading can be paused before a news event, due to regulatory concerns, or if a stock moves outside certain price bands, which is what happened to Berkshire Hathaway.

A handful of trades took place at the discounted price in the minute before the halt started, according to LSEG data. NYSE said that all Berkshire Hathaway trades made at or below $603,718.30 would be canceled.

Class A shares of the conglomerate closed at $627,400 on Friday. The stock reopened at $648,000 at 11:36 a.m., and closed at $631,110 on Monday.

The technical glitch, which came from the Consolidated Tape Association’s real-time stock quotes, lasted for about two hours and was fixed by about 11:45 a.m.

The NYSE allows traders to flag “clearly erroneous” trades and seek compensation, if necessary. Last January, a glitch on the NYSE led to dramatic price swings for more than 250 firms and was traced back to a staffer who left a backup system running.

The CTA oversees the dissemination of real-time price information on several exchanges. It said that Monday’s glitch could have stemmed from “an issue with Limit Up/Limit Down price bands that may have been related to a new software release.”

The NYSE issued similar cancellation notices for at least 12 other firms, like fast-casual chain Chipotle, and exchange-traded funds, including a Pimco bond ETF.

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