Google drops to $25 a share?!

Shares in Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) went on a wild ride late yesterday. By some reports, the stock fell as low as $25 per share just before the close of trading. Other sources say it went to penny!

Either the company is in far worse shape than anyone realized or something isn't quite right at NASDAQ.

Of course, the stock wasn't really in that much trouble. It turns out that a trader sent an unusually large number of orders at 3:57 pm, and this caused the stock price to move wildly, both high and low. A NASDAQ spokesman said, "A market participant sent in a large number of orders and drove the price down at approximately [3:57 p.m. ET] which caused the bid-offer to be artificially low due to their mistake."

Was it a mistake or a diabolical plot? No word on the trader's motivation. But all trades above $425.29 and below $400.25 will be canceled. The stock's closing price was reset to $400.52.

Not everyone seems to have gotten the message though. Today, at 2 pm, Google is trading at $413.35. Google Finance shows this as a 3.3% gain on the day. However, other sites show the same price but report the gain at nearly 30%. I assume that will adjusted too.