March 28, 2024

Glitch Prevents Trading in Over 200 Stocks on the NYSE

There were no closing auctions in the affected stocks and a list of the official closing prices for the securities, based on the consolidated last sale, was distributed via email and NYSE’s website.

The NYSE first alerted traders it was having problems with one of its cash equity matching engines at 9:38 a.m. and it said it would not publish quotes on a total of 216 stocks, including CVS Caremark Corp and Lazard Ltd.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc, BATS Global Markets and Direct Edge exchanges stopped sending orders to the NYSE, declaring “self help” against the exchange.

“Orders were coming in, but those who were issuing the orders were not getting their confirmations or their reports, so we felt it was best to zero it out, if you will, and then to suspend trading of those stocks on our market,” said Rich Adamonis, an NYSE spokesman.

The NYSE said any open orders should be considered canceled.

Adamonis said the server issues were still being investigated at around 3 p.m., but added that they came as the stock symbols were being moved over to a new trading platform.

The NYSE said it “anticipates a normal trading day in all securities” on Tuesday.

The transatlantic exchange operator is in the process of moving all of its markets – including bonds, options, futures and cash equities – in the United States and Europe to a universal electronic trading platform.

The New York-based company’s European markets have been fully integrated with the new system and the exchange is now in the process of moving over its roughly 3,800 U.S. cash equities issues to the new platform, with about 800 having migrated so far, Adamonis said.

The migration will continue to be rolled out through the rest of the year, he added.

NYSE shares closed up 1.4 percent at $23.26.

(Reporting By John McCrank; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andre Grenon)

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/11/12/business/12reuters-nyse-trading-glitch.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Bits: 3G Apple iOS Devices Store Users’ Locations

iPhone TrackingAlasdair Allan and Pete Warden The location of a users iPhone were tracked between New York and Washington D.C.

A hidden file on the Apple iPhone 4 and iPad 3G has been found to store location information.

This privacy glitch was discovered by two programmers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, who presented their findings at the location-centric O’Reilly Where 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

The file, which is called “consolidated.db,” keeps track of GPS data on 3G-enabled Apple devices and regularly updates itself with a user’s location. The image above shows data collected from a single trip between New York City and Washington D.C. Information that is stored on the phone is also sent to the iTunes application when a user syncs or backs-up their iPhone or 3G iPad.

In a blog post on the O’Reilly Radar Web site, Mr. Allan said, “The presence of this data on your iPhone, your iPad, and your backups has security and privacy implications.” The two programmers have contacted Apple’s product security team but said they had not yet had a response.

Apple has also not responded to a request for comment from The New York Times.

Mr. Warden said he had built a free downloadable application that allowed users to see the data collected about them through their iOS device. Once downloaded, the app maps the information that your iPhone has recorded and stored about your previous movements.

The programmers warned iOS owners not to panic — yet. Beyond the issue of the information being stored, “how Apple intends to use it — or not — are important questions that need to be explored,” wrote Mr. Allan.

Christopher Vance, a digital forensics expert specializing in mobile phones, wrote on his security blog that the location file is storing multiple types of location-based information from a users phone at any moment in time. These include the location of the nearest cell phone towers and any WiFi locations an iPhone users passes by, Mr. Vance wrote.

A cell phone owners location information has always been stored by cellular carriers, but has only been available in the past through a court order approved by a judge. Making the file visible and unencrypted on iOS devices could make it available to anyone who gains access to the phone.

The video below shows the two programmers presenting their findings.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=11cdd9d6bcad87db8d88ad78c7d3a822

A Year After G.M. Unloaded It, Saab Is in Trouble Again

Production has been halted since Tuesday at the Saab plant in Trollhattan, near Gothenburg, after several disruptions last week and amid disputes with suppliers over payments and contracts. Saab said Thursday that assembly lines would not resume until early next week as it scrambled to find money to pay its suppliers.

“Some components are not getting through, so we wanted to avoid stop-go production,” said Eric Geers, a Saab spokesman. He conceded the company faced a “tight cash situation,” but added that it was confident that it could agree on terms with suppliers this week for work to resume by Monday.

The disruptions punctuated weeks of uncertainty at Saab, which Spyker Cars, a little known maker of sports cars based in the Netherlands, bought from G.M. in 2010 for $74 million in cash and $326 million in preferred shares from a new Saab-Spyker entity.

Last month, Saab’s chief executive, Jan-Ake Jonsson, unexpectedly announced he would step down in May. Meanwhile, the Russian investor Vladimir Antonov — whom G.M. blocked from participating in the deal last year — has renewed his interest in a stake in Saab’s parent, but it is unclear whether he will be allowed in.

Spyker is hoping to make an announcement about financing for Saab on Friday, according to a person briefed on the plans who was not permitted to speak publicly. He declined to elaborate.

Spyker’s chief executive, Victor R. Muller, who is also in temporary control of Saab, insisted this week that Saab was not on the verge of collapse but was merely suffering from “a small glitch.” Those words have not reassured investors. The company’s shares fell 3.5 percent on Thursday, to 3.85 euros ($5.50), in Amsterdam, and are down 11 percent this year, giving it a market capitalization of 77 million euros ($110 million).

The problem threatens to exacerbate difficulties across a swath of Saab suppliers, which have delivered millions of dollars in parts but have yet to be paid, said Svenake Berglie, chief executive of FKG, a suppliers’ association.

Many are just now emerging from the global recession and have not been able to strengthen their balance sheets, he said. “This has to be solved by next week; otherwise it will be really troublesome for our members.”

Mr. Berglie described Saab as the lifeblood for local engineering jobs. “We need Saab in Scandinavia,” he said.

The Swedish automaker built up a strong brand reputation, particularly from the 1970s onward, for its stylish designs and powerful sedans, although the reliability of its cars was often questioned. It employs 3,800 people, mostly at the Trollhattan plant, in which G.M. invested 750 million euros, ($1.1 billion). Several thousand more supply jobs depend on Saab. Saabs are also produced at a G.M. plant in Mexico.

“The situation is certainly not very good,” said Peter Cooke, a professor at the Center for Automotive Management at the University of Buckingham in England. “My concern from day one was that Spyker might have bitten off more than it could chew.”

Spyker, which made only several dozen luxury cars in 2009, bought Saab in February 2010, after G.M. had threatened to shut it down as part of a restructuring.

Mr. Antonov, chairman of the Convers Group in Moscow, had owned a big stake in Spyker before the purchase, but G.M. compelled him to sell his holding before it would negotiate the sale because news reports had linked him to organized crime.

Spyker has recently applied to allow Mr. Antonov back as a shareholder, but the Swedish government has a potential veto because, as part of the original sale, it guaranteed a 400 million euro ($571 million) loan to Saab from the European Investment Bank. The Swedish authorities are investigating claims of impropriety involving Mr. Antonov, who has denied wrongdoing.

Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=1cb81afb8c9ce36537cb8f3db1574d0f