European stock market ‘flash crash’ triggered by Citigroup trader’s error

A brief-but-steep drop in European stocks on Monday was triggered by a Citigroup trader’s input error, the banking giant said.

The so-called Flash Crash, which tanked the Stockholm benchmark index OMX 30 more than 8% in the span of a few minutes, temporarily halted trading Monday around 8 a.m. GMT after stocks abruptly dipped.

Citigroup, headed by Chief Executive Jane Fraser, took the blame for the short-lived jolt to the markets.

“On Monday, one of our traders made an error when inputting a transaction,” a Citigroup spokesman said in a statement. “Within minutes, we identified the error and corrected it.”

Despite Citi taking the fall, stocks still finished the day nearly 1.8% lower in part because various holidays across the globe thinned trading volume and also because of disappointing economic data from Germany and China.

European markets were mixed Tuesday.