UAL bankruptcy rumors untrue: Stock plunges 76%, old news story reportedly the culprit

UAL Corp. NASDAQ: UAUA) shares were halted Monday following rumors the company was filing for bankruptcy.

MarketWatch is reporting that UAL said the rumor is completely untrue.

Apparently, an old news item on United Airlines filing for bankruptcy somehow resurfaced on the Chicago Tribune newspaper Web site, CNBC reported. The sell-off nearly wiped out the company's share price, as UAUA, which opened trading at $12.17 this morning, plummeted (according to original reports) 99.92% to 1 cent before being halted. Since then most reports say the stock plunged 76% to $3 (see update for clarification).
[Update 12:35 pm: United issued a statement, saying that the bankruptcy reports are "completely untrue," and that it was actually the "irresponsible posting of a 6-year-old Chicago Tribune article by the Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper website with the date changed" (not on the Tribune site as CNBC reported).
While several sources, including Bloomberg, have UAUA stock plunging to 1 cent on the rumor, most now, including the Nasdaq site, have $3 as the low.]

This isn't the first time rumors in the age of the Internet have caused stocks to plunge, even whole markets. Just recently, Bloomberg had its own snafu when it inadvertently published its updated obituary for Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO. While that didn't cause any reaction as it was caught in time, last year, markets crashed because a website reported of an imminent U.S. strike of Iranian nuclear installations.