NASDAQ Shutdown Hurts Market Confidence? [VIDEO] Flash Freeze In NASDAQ Markets Raises Technology Concerns; An "Inexcuseable" Event or an "Outlier"?

A NASDAQ shutdown rocked Wall Street yesterday, raising questions of market confidence.

NASDAQ is the world's second-largest stock exchange, and the market shutdown paralyzed trading of stocks with a combined worth of 5.9 trillion dollars.  Stocks such as Apple and Facebook are traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

The NASDAQ shutdown happened just after noon yesterday.  NASDAQ blamed a connectivity issue and halted trading of all NASDAQ listed securities in order "to protect the integrity of the markets".

According to a USA Today, a federal law enforcement agent who did not want to be named because they were not authorized to speak about the matter, said that the NASDAQ market shutdown was not caused by computer hacking.

Today was a glitch-free day for NASDAQ, but how will market confidence fare in the coming days and weeks?  The NASDAQ market ended up for the day yesterday regardless of the flash freeze.  Nasdaq finished the day up just over 1% at 3638.71

Mary Jo White, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said that even though the shutdown was resolved in hours, it "was nonetheless serious and should reinforce our collective commitment to addressing technological vulnerabilities of exchanges and other market participants."

Thomas Peterffy, head of Interactive Brokers Group, a major online discount brokerage called the NASDAQ shutdown "inexcuseable" and said it would affect market confidence: "The purpose of multiple exchanges is to have a more robust market system in which if any participant must go out, the system will continue to function."

However, others didn't think the NASDAQ shutdown was such a big deal and didn't think it would affect market confidence too much: Gary Kaltbaum, president of money management firm Kaltbaum & Associates, called it "an outlier" and said that it would only be worrisome if technological breakdowns began to occur more frequently than a one-time occurrence.