NYSE Euronext Suffers Multiple Shutdowns

 Econintersect:  Monday morning (June 20) early trading European stocks and bonds that are traded on the NYSE Euronext exchanges was disrupted by a one-hour delay in the opening due to a  “technical problem” involving the start-up procedure for European stock and bond markets.  Tuesday morning (June 21) trading again had early morning problems.Tuesday the Amsterdam AE index and the Brussels Bel-20 index stocks, as well as trading in certain stocks and bonds in Paris, first had an announce opening delay from 7 am to 8 am GMT.  Then, at 8:07 am, trading was again shut down for nearly two hours.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the shut downs on Tuesday were caused by an undescribed “technical problem” (7-8 am) and

The Monday morning problems were described in the Wall Street Journal as faulty performance of “the start-up procedure for European stock and bond markets.”

From the Wall Street Journal: 

A “technical issue” at the launch of the software powering NYSE Euronext’s platforms for trading equities, bonds and exchange-traded funds left exchange members unable to enter, change or cancel orders, employees of the exchange operator told customers in a notice.

The Big Board parent’s level of European share trading on Monday was just over 15%, running below its past-week average of 16.4%, according to data from BATS Global Markets. BATS’ European platform, alongside the markets run by Chi-X Europe, both saw increases in their market share. 

It is not clear if and how Tuesday’s difficulties are related to Monday’s problem.  From Securities Technology Monitor:

The operator of Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Brusslels said it is “currently addressing the root cause of the technical issue,’’ which caused trading in Amsterdam Exchange Index and BEL20 index stocks to be halted from 8:07 a.m. until 10 a.m.

Trading was halted after NYSE Euronext “experienced some latencies” on its stock trading platform. The exchange operator did not disclose whether this involved its Universal Trading Platform.

NYSE however put European bond markets on the platform in December 2008 and said at the time that the Universal Trading Platform would be rolled out to all of NYSE Euronext’s markets in the United States and Europe during 2009.

The point was to make it possible for NYSE Euronext customers to use its Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure to to reach all its stock and derivatives markets on the two continents.

Further consolidation of U.S. and European trading is scheduled later this year with the merger of the Deutsche Börse AG and NYSE Euronext, as has been reported by GEI News.  After the apparent failure of a competing bid for NYSE Euronext by Nasdaq OMX and ICE, there seem now to be no roadblocks to completing the Frankfurt – New York merger.

Sources:  Wall Street Journal, Securities Technology Monitor and GEI News here and here