--Nasdaq cancels pre-market trades in eight companies
--Exchange cuts trades from 9:29 a.m. through 9:30 a.m. EST
marked at more than 10% from Wednesday's closing price
--Big names affected include Goldman, Citigroup and AT&T
By Kaitlyn Kiernan
NEW YORK--Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ) canceled some premarket trades
in eight companies Thursday, including Citigroup Inc. (C), Goldman
Sachs Group Inc. (GS), and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), according to
a trader notice from Nasdaq.
The exchange operator said it will cancel all trades in the
eight names that priced more than 10% from Wednesday's closing
price during the last minute before the open Thursday, according to
the notice. The decision follows an earlier announcement that
Nasdaq was looking into potentially erroneous trading activity
between 9:29 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. EST in more than a dozen
companies.
After first advising traders to look into their trading activity
for trades that could be marked as "clearly erroneous," Nasdaq
later said the exchange "will be canceling trades on the
participants behalf."
A New York Stock Exchange representative said it was not
affected and isn't canceling any trades.
Other companies whose shares were affected include AT&T Inc.
(T), Western Union Co. (WU), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Kroger
Co. (KR), Ventas Inc. (VTR) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S).
It was the second time this week that issues have arisen
regarding trading ahead of the market's 9:30 a.m. EST open. On
Wednesday, confusion over dividend payments to holders of shares of
fiber-optics firm Tellabs Inc. (TLAB) was suspected to be behind
sharp swings in its shares. Some investors appeared to think the
cutoff for receiving the dividend was this week as opposed to later
this month.
Write to Kaitlyn Kiernan at kaitlyn.kiernan@dowjones.com
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