(March 18): Nasdaq, which hosts some of the biggest US tech giants on its exchange, said on Monday it has a resolved an issue related to connectivity and stock orders after more than two hours and said all systems were operating normally.

The company did not give details about the severity of the issue, its second technical glitch in months, but said it was related to the matching engine — software systems that match buy and sell orders on an exchange. The incident started around 4.55am ET, according to the exchange's website.

Thousands of stocks are listed on the Nasdaq, including those of iPhone maker Apple, electric vehicle-maker Tesla and artificial intelligence semiconductor powerhouse Nvidia.

Technical glitches on exchanges can roil markets, hit traders' confidence and attract scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A glitch at the New York Stock Exchange last year prevented the opening auctions for a slew of stocks, prompting widespread trading halts, confusion over whether orders were being filled at correct prices and trades in more than 250 securities being busted.

However, outages at major exchanges have been largely contained in recent years.

"The Nasdaq stock market has resolved its earlier matching engine issues and all systems are operating normally," the company said on its website. It did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.