Did a fat finger cause a 900 point drop on the Dow last night?

Reports from CNBC late last night and other sources suggest that it was a Citigroup trader that accidentally entered a sell side trade of US$16 billion - when they meant to do US$16 million.
Since the market came back and only ended down over 3%, all the focus now is on what happened. There's going to be an investigation into Procter & Gamble (PG) trading, Accenture (ACN) and the market as a whole.
In addition to the fat finger error, there will be a lot of talk about high-frequency trading and its affect.
Blue Chip US stock, Procter & Gamble (PG), dropped roughly 30% in a brief period today to a low of $39.37.
The biggest intraday point drop ever in the Dow Jones Industrial Average may have been caused by an erroneous trade entered by a person at a big Wall Street bank, multiple market sources said on Thursday.
The so-called "fat finger" trade apparently involved an exchange-traded fund that holds shares of some of the biggest and most widely traded stocks, sources said. The trade apparently was put in on the Nasdaq Stock Market, sources said.
Several sources said the speculation is that the trade was entered by someone at Citigroup. A Citigroup spokesman said it was investigating the rumour but that the bank currently had no evidence that an erroneous trade had been made.
North American markets that had started the day on a positive note with good local economic news thenwent into free fall Thursday afternoon, with the Dow Jones index in the U.S. down nearly 1,000 points at one point and Canada’s S&P/TSX losing more than 450 points, before quickly recovering.
In Greece, parliament passed austerity measures needed to secure US$149 billion in international loans despite demonstrations on the street.
The measures, which will slash pensions and civil servants’ pay and increase consumer taxes, passed by a 172-121 vote in parliament.

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