Fat finger causes biggest fall in Wall Street history

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Fri, 07 May 2010 5:03p.m.

The beating pulse of capitalism had a heart attack today, as the Dow Jones plunged, then soared again, in what's being called the biggest bungee jump in Wall Street history.

Here's why:

The Dow - that's America’s top 30 stocks - fell by almost 1000 points and in just a matter of minutes.

Then just as suddenly it shot almost all the way back up again.

Was there a doctor in the house?

No - apparently just a broker with a fat finger.

He hit the keys to dump $16 billion worth of stock, when he only meant to sell $16 million.

It's called "Fat Finger Syndrome", and it startled a market that was already feeling very twitchy.

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