A FINRA trading halt to allow for extraordinary ne

A FINRA trading halt to allow for extraordinary news that might significantly affect trading, positively or negatively, and SEC trading suspension are two different animals. Although the terms "halt" and "suspension" are often interchanged in talk, they are not interchangeable as applied to stock trading.

FINRA Trading Halt

A trading halt occurs in the U.S. when a stock exchange stops trading on a specific security for a certain time period. The halt, which can happen a few times a day per security if FINRA deems it, usually lasts for one hour, but is not limited to that. Trading halts occur during the trading day (intraday), while a trading delay occurs at the beginning of the trading day (delayed opening). The first 5 minutes of a halt is for "news pending" before any information is released that could affect a stock significantly, also known as the "5 minute window".

Trading halts usually occur when a publicly traded company is going to release significant news about itself. The halt in trading for the affected security gives investors time to review the news and assess its impact. Another situation in which a trading halt might occur is when the exchange is uncertain "whether the security continues to meet the market’s listing standards."
###

SEC Trading Suspension

A trading suspension occurs when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stops trading for a specific security because of "serious questions ... about a company’s assets, operations, or other financial information." Note that in this case, it is the SEC — not the exchange — stopping the security from being traded. On its web site, the SEC maintains a list of trading suspensions going back to 1995.
###