You can imagine my surprise when I checked the Canadian markets and saw them totally unchanged. After several refreshes when the zeroes didn't budge, I even panicked. Then I saw the headline (how did I miss it before) that trading was halted on the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange due to a computer glitch. Not only that, but there's also no estimate when trading will resume.

The exchanges have actually failed to open at the regular time of 9:30 a.m. EST, and as one reporter put it "have been dead in the water since." If this is frustrating and stressful for me, I can't imagine what the mood is like on Bay Street; how traders and other market professionals must feel.

I'm not sure what could be done if there are big swings and news out of the U.S. While it's true the Canadian markets don't totally track their American counterparts, as they're heavily weighted in oil and commodities and react to news from those sectors often, they are still affected by what's going on at Canada's biggest trading partner to the south.

Still, it may not be the end of the world as the Canadian holidays also don't exactly follow the American ones and there are days when the TSE is closed while the American markets are open. Also, there are four alternative trading systems in Canada, two at least have reported to be functioning and operational. While volumes there were higher than usual for these system, they were hardly normal for the market as a whole. No doubt, though, these systems will get a boost following this fiasco.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., reportedly has BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE), the owner of Bell Canada, in its sights.

A deal for the telecom company would be worth about CAD$30 billion (over USD$25 billion), making it the largest acquisition in Canadian history and one of the largest buyouts ever, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper. KKR is looking for Canadian partners such as the Ontario Teachers' Fund since foreign firms are prohibited from owning more than 46% of a telecom company's voting shares.

Shares of BCE were up 12% pre-market trading. They have dropped about 4% this year.

KKR already has its hands full:

The New York-based buyout firm is part of the $45 billion TXU Corp. (NYSE: TXU) deal, the largest buyout ever. KKR also is among the companies in the hunt for Australian retailer Coles Group Ltd. Last month, it agreed to buy Dollar General Stores Corp. (NYSE: DG).

Apparently, there's no limit to the number of multi-billion acquisitions that KKR can juggle at the same time.