I confirmed this watching CNBC at 7:55am HST:

CNBC Live at 12:15 is reporting that feed from the NASDAQ is locked up. The talking head says it originates in NASDAQ's Unysis's mainframe called NASDAQ Mainframe II and is causing the index not to update while the individual stock trade quotes on the tape is okay. NASDAQ has devoted full resources to fix the glitch but is not able to say when it might be fixed.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), February 18, 2000

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 18, 2000

Answers

More info at http://cnnfn.com/2000/02/18/markets/nasdaq_computer/

-- Antoine Neron (metis@2000now.org), February 18, 2000.

This was also noted by Jim Barksdale, Former CEO of Netscape, as he was keynoting Senator Bob Bennett's (R) E-commerce convention in Salt Lake City today (Friday, Feb 18). There was quite a reaction, as most of the attendees were bankers.

-- Jen Bunker (jen@bunkergroup.com), February 18, 2000.

Two more stories provide info on today's Nasdaq outage:

BLUE BELL, Pa. (BUSINESS WIRE) - The stories that moved today over various news sources regarding the freezing of the Nasdaq composite index inaccurately reported that the problem was due to a mainframe computer problem. For the record, the problem did not have anything to do with the computer provided by Unisys. The problem was in another part of the system. Contact: Unisys, Blue Bell Brian Daly, 215/986-2214 or Jay Grossman, 215/986-6948

Link

http://news.excite.com/news/bw/000218/pa-unisys Nasdaq Indices Temporarily Disrupted Due To Problem With Communications Line at Data Center

Nasdaq Trading Unaffected by Suspension of Last Sale Price Information On Trader Workstations

Updated 4:25 PM ET February 18, 2000

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nasdaq Stock Market(R) announced today that a communications line malfunctioned before noon today. Last sale price information on Nasdaq(R) securities -- with symbols beginning A through J -- were unable to be transmitted to Nasdaq Workstations II professional workstations.

Subsequently, Nasdaq halted the dissemination of current values of all indices -- except for the Nasdaq-100(R) that is calculated in a different system. During the approximate two-hour disruption, dissemination of last sale prices and other data by market data vendors was unaffected. Vendors distribute this information to the financial community as well as the investing and general public. Trading in Nasdaq securities continued throughout this period without interruption.

Nasdaq Workstation II computer terminals are used primarily by Market Makers, order entry firms, and investors who subscribe to this service.

Once the glitch in the communications line was isolated and resolved, the backlog of last sale information was processed. This took approximately 45 minutes. When the queue of last sale information was eliminated, Nasdaq again disseminated current index values.

During this entire period, the Unisys mainframe computer performed flawlessly and, in fact, continued to process and store last sale prices and index values. Once the problem with the communications line was fixed, the mainframe computer disseminated the data.

The Nasdaq Stock Market lists nearly 5,000 companies, has a larger dollar volume, and trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. Nasdaq is a subsidiary of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD(R)), the largest securities-industry, self-regulatory organization in the United States. For more information about Nasdaq, visit the Nasdaq Web site at www.nasdaq.com or the Nasdaq Newsroom(SM) at www.nasdaqnews.com.

Link

http://news.excite.com/news/pr/000218/dc-nasdaq-disruption

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 18, 2000.