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CNN's citizen journalism site iReport featured a post from the user Johntw, explaining that Jobs had been "rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack."

"I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable," claimed the post, which attracted over 5,000 views in its first three hours online.

However,

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Jobs remained in perfect health, despite the shock of his substantial holdings of Apple stock taking a nosedive.

CNN is now reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the matter with its full support, and is keen to track down the source of the false claims.

However, there are reports that the story was submitted elsewhere even earlier. The blog MacRumors.com received the post as an anonymous submission although Arnold Kim, the site's editor, ruled that it was a fake and decided not to publish it. Other blogs did run the story, although many reported the rumour as unsubstantiated, before later retracting the story.

This is not the only case of online news adversely affecting stock prices in recent weeks. Google News ran a story last month about United Airlines facing bankruptcy. The story turned out to be six years old, but this was not discovered until the company's stock price fell by around three quarters.