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Goofball
09-08-2008, 22:59
Good Lord...

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080908.wunited0908/BNStory/Business/home

Talk about sloppy journalism...


False report sends UAL stock on wild ride


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STEVE LADURANTAYE
Globe and Mail Update
September 8, 2008 at 3:31 PM EDT

UAL Corp. saw its shares temporarily melt down Monday morning on false rumours that it planned to file for bankruptcy protection.
Shares in the parent of United Airlines were halted on the Nasdaq stock exchange at 11:08 a.m. (ET) after falling 76 per cent. Trade resumed at 12:30 p.m., with the shares down 8.6 per cent from their opening price to $11.25.
Stock quotes had the shares as low as 1 cent in morning trade, but terminals were updated to show an intra-day low of $3.
Morning trades would not be cancelled, the exchange said on its website.
http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20080908/wunited0908/unitedairlines_188.jpg A United Airlines jet takes off from Los Angeles, Calif.

UAL Corp.

http://freechart.globeinvestor.com/servlet/charting?chart_type=png&chart_style=stock_price&period=INTRA&chart_plot_type=line&symbol=UAUA-Q&line_colour=013197&lang=en&chart_fg=B8860B&chart_bg=FFFFFF&img_bg=FFFFFF&img_fg=5E5E5E&price_open_colour=1E90FF&chart_size=tiny&x_scale=true&showTitle=false&showDate=true&chart_width=192&chart_height=130&close_line=true&showHeader=true&showYTitle=false
UAL Corp.

http://freechart.globeinvestor.com/servlet/charting?chart_type=png&chart_style=stock_price&period=1YRD&chart_plot_type=line&symbol=UAUA-Q&line_colour=013197&lang=en&chart_fg=B8860B&chart_bg=FFFFFF&img_bg=FFFFFF&img_fg=5E5E5E&price_open_colour=1E90FF&chart_size=tiny&x_scale=true&showTitle=false&showDate=true&chart_width=192&chart_height=130&showHeader=true&showYTitle=false
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The company said the panic was sparked by an old story from the Chicago Tribune reappearing as current news Monday morning. It was published on Dec. 10, 2002, and detailed the company's $22-million in daily losses and its bid to restructure while under bankruptcy protection.
“Reports that the company filed for bankruptcy are completely untrue and were cause by the irresponsible posting of a six-year-old Chicago Tribune story by the Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper website with the date changed,” the company said in a statement. “The story was related to United's 2002 bankruptcy filing, and United has demanded a retraction from the Sun Sentinel and is launching an investigation.”
The Chicago Tribune distanced itself from the situation Monday afternoon, with a story on its website saying internal tracking records showed that nobody at the paper had touched the original story file since 2003. The Sun-Sentinel and the Tribune are owned by the Tribune Company.
The chain said that the story was picked up early Monday from the Florida newspaper's site by an investment adviser at Miami's Income Securities. He posted the file on Bloomberg, where it would be disseminated to anyone with access to one of the data-company's terminals.
The rumours come at a difficult time for the airline industry, with most major carriers cutting routes and downsizing in a bid to survive higher fuel prices.
UAL reported a $2.7-billion (U.S.) loss in its second quarter, hurt by a $773-million increase in the price of jet fuel. Earlier this year it said it would have to cut 7,000 jobs, ground planes and reduce flights to cope with the higher costs.

Martok
09-09-2008, 01:25
In the immortal words of the Unknown Philosopher: "Oops."


:oops:

Hosakawa Tito
09-09-2008, 01:46
I'd like to know who bought up all that stock for mere pennies per share. Might it be a coincidence, an "honest" ~:rolleyes: mistake?

Vladimir
09-09-2008, 01:52
I'd like to know who bought up all that stock for mere pennies per share. Might it be a coincidence, an "honest" ~:rolleyes: mistake?

Agreed. It's almost too tempting not to cast suspicion on those who profited from the news. 76% is just insane.

Goofball
09-09-2008, 04:54
Agreed. It's almost too tempting not to cast suspicion on those who profited from the news. 76% is just insane.

You ain't lying. Playing the stock market is more or less a zero sum game (I know, I know, that's an oversimplification, but it's good enough to apply to this topic). For everyone who lost a buck, somebody made one today. And what we're talking about here is a lot of freakin' bucks...

Vladimir
09-09-2008, 15:14
You ain't lying. Playing the stock market is more or less a zero sum game (I know, I know, that's an oversimplification, but it's good enough to apply to this topic). For everyone who lost a buck, somebody made one today. And what we're talking about here is a lot of freakin' bucks...

I believe you're talking about the futures market. The stock market is largely based on perception but far from a zero sum game.