The glitches that hit the Nasdaq, shutting down trading for hours, had a big impact on ETFs, including a few very popular ones, Zacks Eric Dutram writes.

The Invesco [profile] PowerShares QQQ ETF usually sees volume of 30 million shares a day but volume came in at 16 million shares for the day of the glitches, Dutram reports. Despite the fanfare, prices did not appear to be affected and the ETF finished up 1 percent. BlackRock [profile] iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology Index Fund, however, saw trading volume fall, with its volume being half that of a normal day, Dutram writes.

The disruption renewed fears about the exchanges' strength, Bloomberg's Sam Mamudi writes. Mamudi quotes senior derivatives trader BMO Capitals Markets Corp., Max Breier, as saying, "The real fear is that we get stuck wearing some kind of risk because of an interruption that is not of our doing. Any halt in information or ability to trade is going to hinder our ability to manage risk and take positions.

In response, SEC Chairman Mary Jo White declared that exchange leaders will be asked to come to Washington DC for a meeting, Mamudi reports, in order to "further strengthen our markets."

here and Reuters Sam Forgione reports that Pimco [profile] CEO Mohamed El-Erian showed no mercy in describing the exchanges' flaws, telling CNBC that "It has shown how horrible the crisis management side is. Communication was horrid. There is no backup."

Some Nasdaq officials admitted blame to The Wall Street Journal's Jenny Strasburg and Jacob Bunge, however, saying that their technicians should have had the ability to deal with connectivity problems and avoid the trading halt.

Financial Planning's Mason Braswell reports that Stifel CEO Ron Kruszewski played down the Nasdaq incident, saying it wasn't comparable to the flash crash. Braswell quotes Kruszewski as saying, "On one hand systems need to work 100 percent of the time and we need to continue to look at speed and electronics versus reliability. On the other hand this does not appear to be that big of an event."

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Edited by: Casey Quinlan


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