Trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was shut down for hours yesterday as the exchange tried to cope with what appeared to be a technical glitch, rather than an attack, reports AFP.
"Trading on NYSE and NYSE Mkt has resumed," the exchange announced on Twitter at 1910 GMT, after having froze all equity trading just after 1530 GMT.
It was the longest such suspension of trading at the exchange in recent years, although trading in the stocks listed on the NYSE was able to continue on other stock exchanges, like Nasdaq.
"The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyber breach," NYSE said on Twitter. "We chose to suspend trading on NYSE to avoid problems arising from our technical issue."
The exchange, the leading US platform for trading equities, halted trade just after 1530 GMT (11:30 EST), freezing the buying and selling of the shares of many of the world's largest companies.
The outage came shortly after United Airlines grounded planes at US airports for an hour due for what it called a computer problem.