A mistaken trade may have been partially to blame for a huge crash in the US markets overnight, reports said, as observers questioned why Procter & Gamble's stock tumbled precipitously.
Both Fox News and CNBC reported that a trading error involving P&G stock could have been responsible for part of a dip that dragged the Dow Jones Industrial Average within a hair's breadth of a 1,000-point drop.
The Dow fell 998.5 points, slipping well under 10,000 after a sudden sell-off that saw investors desert stocks wholesale.
But P&G's stock, which had been trading at 62 US dollars, suddenly began to crash, falling around 20 per cent at one point for no apparent reason.
The stock recovered, to close around 60 dollars, but the company said it was looking into reports that a trader accidentally entered a sale in billions rather than millions.
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CNBC and Business Insider reported that a trader from Citigroup was to blame, though a Citi spokesman cautioned it was too early to tell what had happened.
"At this point we have no evidence that Citi was involved in any erroneous transaction," Stephen Cohen told AFP.
Suspicions that an error, whether mechanical or human, had contributed to the market dive emerged shortly after the Dow levelled off, and it began to climb almost as quickly as it had fallen.
By the close, the Dow had moved up 400 points from its lowest level.
The New York Stock Exchange said it had no information that a computer error was at fault.
