U.S. stocks extended their slide on Saturday as chaos linked to a global software glitch added to uncertainty in an already volatile market, while European shares also fell.
The widespread global technical glitch has disrupted operations across a range of industries, including airlines, banking and healthcare, after a flaw in a CrowdStrike cybersecurity software program caused Microsoft’s Windows operating system to crash.
The three major indices on Wall Street suffered losses, with the Dow Jones index falling the most.
On a weekly basis, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices recorded their worst performance since last April, while the Dow Jones index achieved gains.
- The S&P 500 fell 0.71%.
- The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.81%.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.93%.
European stocks fall
European stocks closed lower on Friday as technology stocks sold off, disappointing earnings and commodity-related shares tumbled, capping a turbulent week that ended with a global technical glitch on Friday.
The European Stoxx 600 index closed down 0.8%, its lowest level in more than two weeks, and suffered its largest weekly loss since the beginning of this year, amounting to more than 2%.
The travel and leisure subindex was among the biggest losers, down 2.1%.
Services return after global technical failure
Trading in oil, gas, energy, stocks, currencies and bonds returned to normal after a global technical glitch that disrupted operations at financial services firms and banks from London to Singapore.
Services provided in various fields, from airlines to healthcare, shipping and financial sectors, gradually returned to work yesterday, Friday.
This global disruption has exposed the vulnerabilities arising from the world’s shift to interconnected technology in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
With the outage resolved, companies are now dealing with a backlog of flights, medical appointments and orders, and are also facing questions about how to avoid future service disruptions caused by the technology that is supposed to protect their systems.
