Fidelity: Lava Error Triggered NYSE Halts

My understanding is that there was a 100-stock buy program at the open this morning that kept replicating itself, resulting in the following orders that raised the eyebrows of NYSE specialists:

• 50,000 orders of WYE for 800 shares each, a total of 40 million shares;
• 25,000 orders of AT&T for 1,000 shares each, a total of 25 million shares;
• 6,000 orders of Jefferies for approximately 667 shares each, totaling 4 million shares.

It was the roughly 4 million-share order for Jefferies that really caught the attention of the NYSE specialists and operations managers; the brokerage firm's average daily volume for the past 30 days is 3.4 million.

"Floor professionals recognized the problem before trading began, thus avoiding trading at incorrect prices on the NYSE," the exchange said in a statement.

"This speaks well to our market model, as the specialists detected erroneous orders and prevented a lot of money from being lost," adds an NYSE spokesman.

NYSE officials declined to confirm who originated the order, but sources say Fidelity was contacted after specialists alerted NYSE officials to what appeared to be abnormally large trades in the three stocks. Fidelity and/or NFS confirmed that the trades were made in error and the NYSE then proceeded with trying to restore imbalances in the three stocks.