It's 2 p.m., trading has not resumed - though Nasdaq expects to open 'shortly.'

[ by Howard Haykin ]

Hit by a mid-day shut-down, all Nasdaq equities and options trading have been halted until further notice.   The problem was attributed to malfunctioning software that feeds data between exchanges .

A problem at the Nasdaq stock market halted trading in all Nasdaq-listed stocks on Thursday, including major names like Apple and Microsoft, according to an account provided by NYT Dealbook.

Nasdaq sent out an alert at 12:14 p.m. on Thursday telling traders that it was “halting trading in all” stocks listed on the Nasdaq exchange “until further notice.” The exchange said the issue was a result of problems with the system on which trades are recorded. Trading was also halted on all Nasdaq options markets.

Trading was still halted more than a half an hour after the problem emerged, creating the unusual sight of the popular Nasdaq stock index flat lining during the middle of the trading day.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement: “We are monitoring the situation and are in close contact with the exchanges.”

Traders were scrambling to assess the impact of the outage in some of the most popular and widely traded stocks. At least some trading was able to go ahead on other trading platforms and exchanges.

The outage appears to be one of the most significant technology problems to hit a trading world that has become accustomed to glitches. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs sent out a barrage of erroneous options trade that briefly crippled the market.  

For further details, go to:

[ Dealbook, 8/22/13 ]         [ CNBC, 8/22/13 ]              [ BLOOMBERG, 8/22/13 ]