Google’s stock price crashed to a low of $25 or a loss of over $375 for the day right before the closing bell on Wall Street yesterday due to a computer error. Investors in the internet giant were momentarily stunned with the abrupt loss of 93% of the stock’s value. The Nasdaq stock exchange where Google and other high tech companies are traded quickly stepped in and corrected the situation.
“Erroneous orders” that were routed to Nasdaq from another market center had triggered the plunge, a Nasdaq spokesman to the Los Angles Times newspaper.
Nasdaq canceled all trades at or above $425.29 and trades at or below $400.52 that were executed between 3:57 p.m. and 4:02 p.m. EDT. Nasdaq set the closing price at $400.52, which was a 5% gain after Monday’s 12% loss. The decision cannot be appealed according to Nasdaq officials.
Google’s share price has been hit hard lately. The stock had been trading around $600 per share in May of this year, and its shares hit an all-time high of $747.20 last November.
Just like the United Airlines six year old bankruptcy accidentally winding up on the financial news wires a few weeks ago, here is another case of computer glitches making stocks yo-yo back and forth for no fundamental reason. Unlike the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq is 100% traded via computer systems. Conspiracy theories can now continue to run rampant over the questions about the security electronic stock trading.
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