The US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday published a proposed rule to shore up shaky markets by instituting a five minute crossmarket time-out for any stock that had experienced a 10% change in price in the preceding five minutes.

The SEC is proposing the rule in collaboration with national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, in response to the confusing May 6 market tumble, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 1,000 points in less than an hour before staging a partial recovery.