Google Shares Halted Following Earnings Debacle

Shares of Google

are currently halted following the premature release of the company's third-quarter earnings. The pre-announcement

, prompting Nasdaq to halt the shares at $687.30. Shares of Google, the largest provider of Internet search services, have traded in a range of almost $84 today. The stock was trading around $755 at the time of the early earnings release, found in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, before plunging as low as $676. The company showed a profit of $9.03 per share, well below the $10.65 per share analysts expected. California-based Google was scheduled to report those results today after the close of U.S. markets. Paid clicks on advertisements Google carries rose 33 percent year-over-year and six percent from the second quarter. Revenue was $11.33 billion, well below the $11.86 billion analysts expected. In a sign that Google's most important revenue driver, the paid clicks on advertisements, is slowing, the company said that metric tumbled by 15 percent in the third-quarter from the year-earlier period. Heading into the start of trading today, shares of Google were up 15.4 percent year-to-date. With the stock halted with an intraday loss of nine percent, the year-to-date gain has been slashed to 6.4 percent. CNBC reported

while Barron's reported the company said auditor R.R. Donnelley

released the results without permission. Shares of R.R. Donnelley are off 3.5 percent on volume that is nearly double the daily average in midday trading.