Business

Stock broker error sends Kraft shares soaring 29% in glitch

Nasdaq and other exchanges cancelled some trades of Kraft Foods Group Inc. Wednesday following an unusual spike after the market opened.
Shares in Kraft briefly gained almost 30 per cent in the first minute of trading on Thursday because of a glitch. (Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)

Nasdaq and other exchanges cancelled some trades of Kraft Foods Group Inc. Wednesday following an unusual spike after the market opened.

Kraft's shares opened at $45.55 before surging to $58.54.

Nasdaq attributed the glitch to a broker error, although it did not name the broker involved.

"Nasdaq's systems performed normally and the industry's process for handling these issues worked as intended," the exchange said in a statement.

Glitch comes days after split

The issue comes only days after Kraft Foods and former Kraft snack business Mondelez International began trading as two separate companies.

Nasdaq and other so-called UTP, or unlisted trading privileges, exchanges, which include NYSE Arca, Direct Edge and BATS, agreed to cancel all trades above $47.82 that happened during a one-minute window at 9:30 a.m. eastern time.

There have been several high-profile trading glitches recently with the increasingly complicated electronic systems that run stock trading. Those systems have shown signs of strain as more traders and big investment firms use powerful computers to execute trades in fractions of a second.

Kraft's shares fell 55 cents to close at $44.87.