The Securities and Exchange Commission could implement stock-by-stock circuit breakers as early as next week, according to a statement the government agency released late Friday.

The changes come following a sudden, near 1,000-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on May 6 that resulted from an error stemming from a lack of communication between the six exchanges operating in the United States — The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, BATS, Direct Edge, ISE and CBOE. Each operates with different rules, and when the NYSE put a hold on trading on a number of stocks, chaos ensued with traders and computer systems. The exchange regrouped to a 347.80 point loss by the end of trading that day.

The SEC has since been meeting with the various exchanges to develop a structural framework for strengthening circuit breakers and handling erroneous trade.

The statement, issued by SEC spokesman John Nester, follows:

“Two weeks ago, in response to the market disruption of May 6, the SEC sought public comment on proposed rules that would require the national securities exchanges and FINRA to pause trading in certain individual stocks if the price moves 10 percent or more in a five-minute period. The rules were proposed by the national securities exchanges and FINRA.

“The SEC staff is now reviewing and analyzing the comments that were received over the course of a public comment period that ended yesterday.

“The staff expects to present the proposals to the Commission next week. If approved, the staff anticipates full implementation within a week thereafter.”

Charlie Smith, chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group Inc., a Pittsburgh-based money management firm, said the SEC’s pace has been aggressive toward making technical changes in a relatively short period of time.

“The players in this market have seen the writing on the wall since May 6 and perhaps have been working on coding changes,” Smith said. “We’ve got to have circuit breakers. You can’t have exchanges trading listed stocks of viable solid companies at a penny a share. Computers can do that but humans need to be able to over-ride when programs go haywire.”

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