May 07, 2010

BLOODY HOPELESS: Typo led to US market crash: report

A typing error by a sharemarket trader may have been 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 ($1.1 trillion), or 9 per cent, evaporated from US share values in minutes.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average later recovered some of the losses but still closed more than 3 per cent lower.