Nasdaq cancels trades in major stocks Nasdaq cancelled dozen of trades in nine of Wall Street's biggest stocks, including Goldman Sachs , Citigroup and Hewlett-Packard , after shares in the companies fluctuated wildly in pre-market trading. The exchange operator said it would unilaterally cancel all trades in the stocks that were greater than 10 per cent away from the previous day's closing price. All the trades in question - which were deemed "clearly erroneous" - took place on its exchange and occurred in the seconds before the market formally opened on Thursday. The cancellation highlights what has become a frequent feature of modern US markets, as the rise of automated and high-frequency trading increases the likelihood of mistaken orders. It also comes as regulators and securities industry officials have focused on the issue of formerly not-for-profit stock exchanges which are allowed to operate under their own set of rules. Nasdaq declined to comment beyond the trade alerts which it issued on Thursday. The erroneous trades that were cancelled included some in Goldman Sachs, which traded around $118 during market hours in New York on Thursday, executed at $96 during the 60-second window before the market opened, according to data from Nanex, the market research firm. Hewlett-Packard shares traded at $3, some 80 per cent below their price on Thursday. Wells Fargo , AT&T , Kroger Co ., Ventas Inc ., Western Union , and Sprint Nextel were also involved in the cancellations. The cancellations came after Nasdaq alerted the market that it was investigating "clearly erroneous transactions." A person familiar with the situation said all the trades came from a single large broker, but declined to name the company on the grounds that it was an exchange client. This person added: "There was a customer this morning that had market data issues, which resulted in a bunch of erroneous trades." Another person said the trades took place only on Nasdaq and did not involve the other US exchanges. Nasdaq has faced scrutiny related to a variety of problems during the year, led by the botched Facebook initial public offering in May. Brokers are still seeking to recover $500m from losses which they claim as a result of the float. Erroneous trades on Nasdaq in October forced it to cancel trades in Kraft Foods, just as it was celebrating the move of its listing from the New York Stock Exchange.