IOSCO-Confluence of events likely caused flash crash -SEC

MONTREAL, June 10 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators will most likely find that a confluence of events caused the unprecedented stock market "flash crash" in early May, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro said on Thursday.

Schapiro told Reuters that it was too early to say that regulators will never figure out what caused the Dow Jones industrial average to plunge some 700 points in minutes on May 6 before sharply rebounding.

Earlier on Thursday, the SEC approved of a mechanism to temporarily pause trading in single stocks when markets are plunging uncontrollably. The stock-specific circuit breakers, being adopted this month, will halt trading for five minutes in any S&P 500 share if it falls more than 10 percent in five minutes.

Schapiro was talking on the sidelines of a regulation conference in Montreal. (Reporting by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Leslie Adler)