Diana Wolf
5 Online Mistakes that Caused a Market Frenzy
by Diana Wolf - October 24, 2008 - 2:51 PM

1. United Airlines

UAL.jpgOn September 8, 2008, United Airlines stock fell 76%, from $12.17 at open to about $3.00 mid-morning.  Why the collapse? Because a six-year-old story about UAL’s 2002 bankruptcy filing was somehow re-posted online on the website of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a paper owned by the Chicago Tribune Co. It was quickly refuted and the share price recovered after a 90-minute trading halt. Oddly enough, the story was not dated 2002, but was dated September 8, 2008. The blame has been put on Google, whose spider saw it on the Sun-Sentinel, assigned the current date, and placed it in the top results on Google News.

2. Apple I


apple-100.jpgOn August 27, 2008, Bloomberg inadvertently published its running obituary for Steve Jobs. The obituary was only posted “momentarily” and was “immediately deleted,” though not before it was caught. View the 17-page obituary, the retraction made by Bloomberg, as well as notes for Bloomberg reporters here.

3. Apple II

apple-100.jpgAgain, on October 3, 2008, CNN iReport, a user-generated site, reported a false claim that Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack. The news quickly spread across the internet and the stock fell 10% in 10 minutes. An Apple spokesman had to deny the allegation. One he did, the stock picked back up within about 15 minutes.

4. Apple III

apple-100.jpgOn May 16, 2007, Engadget posted a report that the iPhone launch would be pushed back from June to October. They retracted their comments, but in the meantime caused a $4 billon drop in Apple’s market value. Engaget didn’t just dream up the story; someone had passed on a fake email announcing the delay to the internal Apple staff. That letter was forwarded on to Engadget who then reported it on their site. Once the story was cleared up, the stock’s value was restored and finished down only $1.40 at the close.

5. The Dow

dowjones2.jpgOn March 30, 2007, the Dow fell a few hundred points (unlike now, such volatility meant something back then). The drop was a result of a false report on an Israeli website of an imminent US air strike on Iran. The site also reported that US investors in Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf, were advised to pack up their business operations and leave. Reuters issued a statement disproving the stories and the markets rebounded.

Be sure to read more of what Diana learned today here.

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Comments (6)

  1. Why do they have a running obit for Steve Jobs? Is it just in case he does actually drop dead, so they can post it immediately?

    posted by CK on 10-24-2008 at 4:51 pm

  2. “…the Dow fell a few hundred points (unlike now, such volatility meant something back then).”

    Ha, that made me laugh out loud!

    posted by JD on 10-24-2008 at 5:29 pm

  3. CK: Yes, and all news organizations have them on hand for any major figure. A few years ago, some of CNN’s were available on their website for a while (Cheney and some others). It occasionally happens that the lead byline on an obit will be from a reporter who is already dead, since it was written years earlier, and the details were just filled in.

    Sounds like a floss article.

    posted by Erik on 10-24-2008 at 5:57 pm

  4. It’s scary that Steve Jobs is that important to the company’s well being. Surely they must have plans to keep it going after his demise. Recaptcha: Writers awaken

    posted by Judy on 10-25-2008 at 9:15 am

  5. “Why do they have a running obit for Steve Jobs? Is it just in case he does actually drop dead, so they can post it immediately?”

    Yes; this is common practice in journalism for celebrities & public figures.

    posted by Dave on 10-26-2008 at 1:44 pm

  6. Years ago, a friend of mine had an internship with a newspaper in DC, and he showed me some of the pre-fab obits of famous people his paper had. All they have to do is plug in the dates and details of his or her death, and run it.

    posted by Jim on 10-27-2008 at 10:23 am

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