Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

As Wall Street freefalls, Accenture does a trampoline bounce

By | May 6, 2010, 1:45pm PDT

Summary: For two minutes on a topsy-turvy Wall Street day, Accenture stock dropped to a penny before rebounding back to the $40 level.

Pick a news site this afternoon and you’ll find plenty of analysis, speculation or theory over what happened on Wall Street today to cause the Dow to plunge before heading back toward a recovery.

But to illustrate how dramatic the plunge was, look no further than Accenture.

Accenture opened at $41.78 and then climbed a bit before flattening out for most of the day. Then, right around 2:45 p.m., with the stock trading at around $40, it plummeted - down to 1 cent. Yes, a penny.

And then, two minutes later, it bounced right back up to that $40 level. (Anyone happen to buy in those two minutes?)

So, what happened? Like I said, theories galore, including human error involving a trader who typed a “b” for billion, instead of an “m” for million. There’s also talk that it was a computer glitch.

By the way, Accenture was down slightly - 2.56 percent, to be exact - for the day. It closed at $41.09

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Sam has been a technology and business blogger for more than 18 years.

Disclosure

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz has nothing to disclose.

Biography

Sam Diaz

Sam has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at ZDNet, the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.

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