Computer "Glitches" Shut Down New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines, WSJ

CNN reports:

The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading 11:32 a.m ET Wednesday. In a brief announcement, the exchange said it was experiencing a "internal technical issue" and said on Twitter that it's "not the result of a cyber breach." "We will be providing further updates as soon as we can, and are doing our utmost to produce a swift resolution, communicate thoroughly and transparently, and ensure a timely and orderly market re-open," the NYSE said. The Department of Homeland Security told CNN that there is "no sign of malicious activity" at the NYSE or with an earlier outage experienced by United Airlines. The Wall Street Journal's homepage stopped functioning around the same time that the NYSE went down. The Journal was able to restore a limited homepage by 12:18 pm ET with the message "WSJ.com is having technical difficulties. The full site will return shortly."

More about United:

United Airlines said on Wednesday it was restoring operations after all its flights were grounded for about two hours due to computer problems. Earlier, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all of United's flights following a systemwide computer glitch, which was resolved, the agency said. The grounding order began at 8 a.m. EDT and ended at 9:47 a.m. About 260 flights were delayed, or 12 percent of all United flights, according to website FlightAware, while seven flights canceled. United in a statement said "We are recovering from a network connectivity issue this morning and restoring regular flight operations." United said it would rebook flights for affected passengers without charge.

JMG reader Tom points us to a tweet sent last night by an account associated with Anonymous.

Queer Nation Wins With NYSE

More from the Moscow Times:

During last year's event, the Russian flag was raised on the NYSE building together with a banner announcing "2012 NYSE Russia Day." Amid this year's protests against the Russian law, neither the flag nor any other sign commemorating Russia appeared outside the NYSE building. "Apparently, the NYSE is embarrassed by their association with the Russian government," said Duncan Osborne, an activist with the Queer Nation gay rights group, in an interview. By Monday, gay rights activists had gathered nearly 10,000 signatures for a petition urging the NYSE to cancel its Russia Day altogether to protest the law, which was adopted in June and has been blamed by opponents for a recent flurry of attacks against Russian gays. "Russia's abusive treatment of its LGBT citizens is grimly illustrated by accounts of gay youth being kidnapped, tortured and raped by … gangs whose activities the Russian government allows to to flourish and even actively encourages," said the petition posted on the Change.org website.

Image via Queer Nation.

Queer Nation To Protest At NYSE

Via press release:

In the latest in a series of ongoing, high-profile demonstrations against the Russian government’s anti-gay laws, Queer Nation will protest outside the New York Stock Exchange while Russian government officials at the Exchange ring the closing bell. The protest will take place on Monday, November 18, at 3:15 PM, in front of the Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street. November 18 at the stock exchange is “Russia Day,” an event that will promote investment in Russia. The day is sponsored by the stock exchange, several Russian companies, and Cleary Gottlieb, a U.S. law firm. Sergey Belyakov, Russia’s deputy economics minister, has been selected to ring the closing bell.

“It’s outrageous that the Stock Exchange invited representatives from the Russian government to ring the closing bell,” said Alexis Danzig, a Queer Nation member. “The Exchange is now complicit with the Russian government’s violence and attacks against LGBT Russians, political dissidents, and undocumented immigrants," she continued. “The members of the Stock Exchange should be encouraging divestment, not investment, in Russian assets.” In response to pressure by activists, including Queer Nation, Goodwin Procter, LLP, a U.S. law firm; James R. Silkenat, the president of the American Bar Association; and the Office of the Mayor of the City of New York all ended their association with a separate forum promoting U.S. investment in Russia that was to be held at the Midtown offices of Goodwin Procter, also on November 18.

More details at their Facebook page.

Petition Of The Day

From the petition:

The New York Stock Exchange and Goodwin Procter are lending their credibility to the effort to entice American investors into investing in the Russian economy. On November 18, 2013, the NYSE will host Russia Day, when leading Russian government officials — some of them the very architects of Russia's homophobic law banning any gay-positive speech and tacitly encouraging violence against LGBT Russians — will ring the closing bell at the stock exchange, to sickening applause from NYSE traders. That same day, Goodwin Procter, a major New York City law firm, will host a high-profile investment seminar called Russia Forum NY. It is shocking that the NYSE and Goodwin Procter are calling for investment in Russia. As was done to combat South Africa's apartheid, the call to Americans of conscience should be to divest from Russia, not invest. The NYSE and Goodwin Procter must cancel their Russia Day activities to send a warning to Russian government officials that Russia's abuse of basic human rights is bad for business.

Patrick Stewart Rings In Twitter IPO

The IPO was priced at $26 and at this writing the stock has climbed to $45.