2020

United States stock markets were thrown into turmoil on Wednesday morning after more than 100 stocks were hit with a surge of volatile and unexpected trading immediately after markets opened.

Traders immediately pointed fingers at one of Wall Street’s most powerful brokerage firms, Knight Capital Group, speculating that a “rogue algorithm” kept buying or selling millions of shares of companies for 30 minutes, sending their shares soaring or plunging. The Jersey City-based company said in a statement that “a technology issue occurred” in the division of the company that uses computer algorithms to buy and sell stocks from other market participants.