UAL stock one cent sale!

[mikea]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- UAL Corp. shares were halted Monday following rumors that the airline holding company was filing for bankruptcy, ...An old news item on United Airlines seeking bankruptcy inadvertently resurfaced on a Web site, ...Shares of UAL last traded at a penny a share, down 99.9%.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ual-says-bankruptcy-rumor-completely/story.aspx?guid={CC693DCA-17A6-4639-A6CA-F6DFD7024961}&dist=TQP_Mod_mktwN

It was the Chicago Tribune's web site, down the river from the pickets at Boeing HQ.

I dunno what the worry was. Everybody knows they'd just get another federal bailout.

Oh. I guess the stockholders don't get that.

 

[Ken Ibold]

So glad my tickets to Germany, which we thought were being booked on Lufthansa, were booked on United via code share.

 

[mikea]

It wasn't the Chicago Tribune, it was South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-united-old-story-sep8,0,7800230.story

So, a guy using Google found the old story, probably posted a link to it, and THAT caused the panic? NO ONE read the dateline on it?

Is the SEC going to ban sites from archiving old stories?

I'm sure you could find that very story on the Chicago Tribune site - the only difference being they make you pay for access to archived stories.

 

[Ken Ibold]

It wasn't the Chicago Tribune, it was South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-united-old-story-sep8,0,7800230.story

So, a guy using Google found the old story, probably posted a link to it, and THAT caused the panic? NO ONE read the dateline on it?

Is the SEC going to ban sites from archiving old stories?

I'm sure you could find that very story on the Chicago Tribune site - the only difference being they make you pay for access to archived stories.

MSNBC reports the dates in the article itself had been changed.

 

[mikea]

MSNBC reports the dates in the article itself had been changed.

The web site code will make up the header for the story, in this case with today's date.

Betcha some CEO got his money's worth by outsourcing the coding to overseas.

 

[wsuffa]

There is no end to the stupidity of investors... or so-called reporters that don't actually research stories.

 

[Trapper John]

There is no end to the stupidity of investors... or so-called reporters that don't actually research stories.

Really dumb of Bloomberg to let Income Securities have direct access...someone's gonna get canned over that, I bet...

The Sun-Sentinel story did not have any discernible impact on United shares until after 10:53 a.m., when it was posted to the Bloomberg financial news service. The story was posted to Bloomberg by a Miami, Fla. investment advisory firm, Income Securities Advisor.

A reporter for Income Securities, which posts stories about distressed debt securities directly to Bloomberg, became aware of the story early Monday after searching for bankruptcy situations using the Google search engine. The Sun-Sentinel story was the first story in a list of Google results, said Richard Lehmann, president of Income Securities.


Trapper John

 

[CJones]

Really dumb of Bloomberg to let Income Securities have direct access...someone's gonna get canned over that, I bet...

The Sun-Sentinel story did not have any discernible impact on United shares until after 10:53 a.m., when it was posted to the Bloomberg financial news service. The story was posted to Bloomberg by a Miami, Fla. investment advisory firm, Income Securities Advisor.

A reporter for Income Securities, which posts stories about distressed debt securities directly to Bloomberg, became aware of the story early Monday after searching for bankruptcy situations using the Google search engine. The Sun-Sentinel story was the first story in a list of Google results, said Richard Lehmann, president of Income Securities.


Trapper John

Wow.. So now financial advisors are simply Googling for the info that they charge an arm-and-leg for? Nice.

 

[vontresc]

I wonder how many people managed to buy at $0.01?

One hell of a profit margin if that happened.

 

[mikea]

I wonder how many people managed to buy at $0.01?

One hell of a profit margin if that happened.

I read that was at least one buy of 2000 shares at 0.05.

I hear the SEC can unwind those.

I'll bet the 2000 shares at 0.05 sold minutes later for 0.10.

 

[KennyFlys]

The part that worries me... some of these same people vote.