Markets rally after Twitter rumour sparks brief sell-off

Equity markets have moved sharply higher despite a brief sell-off yesterday sparked by inaccurate reports of a terrorist attack on the White House.

The S&P 500 closed 1% higher at 1,579, having earlier erased almost all those gains after hackers gained control of the Associated Press Twitter account. Investors were briefly panicked by two erroneous tweets which reported President Obama had been injured, but soon recovered their confidence after realising there was no truth to the rumours. Apple was among the high profile US risers, shares rising 1.9% after it attempted to offset its first profit fall for a decade by announcing it would return an extra $55bn to shareholders over the next three years. After seeing a similar sell...