Microsoft stock was down in pre-market trading Friday after a global IT outage caused widespread chaos across airlines, banks and other industries.The tech giant's stock price had fallen more than two percent to $431 per share at 05:16 a.m. ET. It closed at $440.37 on Thursday.Reports of outages began surfacing around 3 p.m. in Australia, affecting a wide range of services.
' British broadcaster Sky News was temporarily unable to broadcast on Friday morning, and the country's GP appointments system was also down.The cause of the disruption is reported to be related to CrowdStrike's Falcon Sensor platform, which is an end-point detection and response system embedded within many companies' IT infrastructures.Stock in the cybersecurity company had fallen nearly 17 percent to $285 per share at 05:11 a.m. ET. It closed at $343.05 on Thursday.