By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange said it was looking into why at least 10 U.S.-traded securities saw their shares jump or dive suddenly without any news on Tuesday, only to resume their original trading pattern.
A handful of seemingly unrelated stocks, including Pandora Media , Nokia and the Select Sector Financial SPDR exchange-traded fund , all shifted suddenly, dropping or rising by anywhere from 1.0 percent to 18 percent, between 10:30 am ET and 11 a.m. ET.
"We have received calls and we are checking it out", said NYSE spokesman Ray Pellecchia.
None of the moves resulted in temporary share halts, even though at least one stock, MEMC Electronic Materials had an 18 percent move in less than a second. Two trades in MEMC took place at less than $2 a share on Nasdaq's alternative display facility, according to Thomson Reuters data.
One questionable trade occurred in Pandora at 10:58 a.m. ET at $10.43 a share, about 4.0 percent away from where the market had been trading. This trade was also on the Nasdaq's alternative display facility. The Nasdaq did not return a call for comment.
"I'm just noticing the pattern and noticing the stocks," said Sal Arnuk, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.
Other securities with unusual moves include Las Vegas Sands , Two Harbors Investment and Hatteras Financial .
"It definitely is raising an issue, there is chatter along the Street that the exchanges have lost control."
Overall, U.S. stocks were lower at midsession on Tuesday, led by losses in the technology sector after brokerage downgrades of Intel and other major companies amid worries about third-quarter U.S. earnings.
Earnings reports for S&P 500 companies, which begin later on Tuesday, may show the first quarterly drop in three years, according to analysts' estimates.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 81.21 points, or 0.60 percent, at 13,502.44. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 11.20 points, or 0.77 percent, at 1,444.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 44.75 points, or 1.44 percent, at 3,067.61.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Chuck Mikolajczak; editing by David Gaffen and Clive McKeef)
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Keywords: USA MARKETS/TRADES