NYSE Resolves Glitch: Berkshire Hathaway Stock Corrects 100% Drop Error

 Berkshire Hathaway Stock Error Corrected After NYSE Resolves Glitch

 TOPLINE

A glitch caused trading websites to display a nearly 100% loss for Berkshire Hathaway shares on Monday morning, falsely indicating that the conglomerate led by billionaire investor Warren Buffett plummeted from a market capitalization of almost $900 billion to below $1 billion. The error was later corrected. The incorrect share price and temporary trading halt were due to a technical issue, according to a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) spokesperson. This problem was traced to inaccurate real-time share price information from the Consolidated Tape Association, which automatically triggered a limit up-limit down pause meant to stop stocks from trading outside normal bounds.

The glitch caused trading platforms to incorrectly show a 99.97% loss for Class A shares of Berkshire, while the less expensive Class B shares were down a more modest 1% as trading in the Class A shares was halted.

Other stocks affected by the error included Chipotle, GameStop, and AMC, the latter two having been part of the recent meme stock frenzy.

Berkshire's stock resumed trading at 11:35 a.m. ET after a nearly two-hour pause.

The exact cause of the glitch is not yet known, but a NYSE spokesperson told the Financial Times that a cyber attack is not suspected.

KEY BACKGROUND

On Monday morning, Berkshire's Class A shares were erroneously displayed at $185.10, which would have been their lowest level since 1979. This is a stark contrast to their actual price of $635,000 per share. Forbes' real-time billionaires tracker briefly showed Buffett, the seventh-richest person in the world, losing $136 billion, wiping out almost his entire fortune. The majority of Buffett’s wealth is tied to his 15% stake in Berkshire Hathaway, which owns subsidiaries like GEICO and has significant investments in companies like Apple.

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Derek Saul

Derek Saul is a New Jersey-based Senior Reporter on Forbes' news team. He graduated in 2021 from Duke University with a major in Economics and served... Read More

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