Did a typo trigger Wall St crash?

Fairfax Media

MARKET PLUNGE: An erroneous trade may have triggered a 9 per cent intra day fall on Wall St.

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Stocks up but trading light Kiwi down after strong week Greek deal spurs risk appetites NZ stocks shrug off tepid start Investors look to Greece for reform plan Stocks pause while waiting on Greek deal Kiwi slips pending Greek deal, job numbers Stocks mixed as Greek fears sees gains sputter Risk appetites flip on whiff of a Greek deal NZ dollar gains on Greece, but still range bound

A typing error by a sharemarket trader is believed to be responsible for the US equity market crashing by nearly 1000 points overnight.

CNBC is reporting that a trader entered a "b" for billion instead of an "m" for million in a trade involving US consumer goods giant Procter and Gamble.

The dive sent shock waves around global financial markets as $US1 trillion ($1.4 trillion)  evaporated from US share values in minutes.

According to CNBC sources, Citigroup is the company responsible for the erroneous trade.

The Dow later rebounded, with Citigroup now investigating the erroneous trade.

"We, along with the rest of the financial industry, are investigating to find the source of today's market volatility," bank spokesman Stephen Cohen said.

"At this point, we have no evidence that Citi was involved in any erroneous transaction."

Bloomberg reported that New York Stock Exchange spokesman Rich Adamonis said "there were a number of erroneous trades".

Bloomberg reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average went down almost 1000 points, its biggest intraday loss since 1987, before later rectifying the decline. The Dow was down 347.8 points at close, or 3.2 per cent.
Several investigations into the day's drama are now under way.

Images of rioting as the Greek Parliament passed unpopular austerity measures did little to ease market panic.

Shares in Procter and Gamble closed down 2.3 per cent to $US60.75.

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