Why has Berkshire Hathaway fallen 99.97% on the New York Stock Exchange? The strange mistake that explains it

The New York Stock Exchange saw the A-class shares of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway appearing to plummet almost 100% during the morning trading period, while Barrick Gold and Nuscale Power also saw their stock plunge dramatically.

Berkshire Hathaway was trading at more than $620,000 earlier on Monday morning, then inexplicably hurtled to $185.

The drastic falls were caused by a technical issue that affected 40 stocks, causing trading to be halted for these companies. Trading resumed later in the morning when the issue was resolved some two hours after it began.

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Why has Berkshire Hathaway fallen 99.97% on the New York Stock Exchange? The strange mistake that explains it

The New York Stock Exchange said there was no evidence that a cyberattack caused the problem, according to CNN.

The NYSE explained that the glitch was an effect of price-bands that are published by the Consolidated Tape Association (CTA), the group used by major exchanges to publish real-time trade data and quotes. The price bands that establish up and down limits aim to fight volatility in the market.

The pause indicated that the stocks traded outside the limit up and limit down bands. Aside from the holding company Berkshire Hathaway, other notable stocks affected were Chipotle Mexican Grill and Bank of Montreal.

The CTA says its data center encountered issues that may have been related to a new software release. The glitch prompted halts on shares of up to 40 stocks on the exchange. The CTA said it managed to fix the issue by using a secondary data center which was running the software’s previous version.

After the resolution of the technical issue, trading resumed, with Buffett’s company closing higher at more than $630,000.