Mattel shares drop sharply premarket, then recover

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Sunday September 05, 2010 03:23:13 AM GMT

* In five-second burst of trades shares fell 21.6 pct

* Shares at $21.80 in premarket trading, or up 0.6 pct

NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Mattel Inc shares abruptly fell nearly 22 percent in premarket trading on Friday for unclear reasons before recovering an hour later.

In a five-second burst beginning at 7:49 EDT (1149 GMT), 23 trades involving 8,000 shares were made at a price of around $16.98, or $4.68 below Thursday's closing price of $21.66.

The trades were made on Nasdaq OMX Group's Nasdaq Stock Market and on NYSE Euronext's electronic Arca exchange, according to Thomson Reuters data.

An hour later, at 8:48 EDT, one trade involving 2,900 shares saw the stock exchanging hands for $21.80, or up 0.6 percent.

Mattel and NYSE Euronext did not immediately return requests for comment. A Nasdaq spokesman said the exchange operator was looking into the matter. (Reporting by Phil Wahba and Leah Schnurr, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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