The story, marked “Hold for release – Do not use”, was sent in error to the news service’s thousands of corporate clients. The stock obituary was published “momentarily” after a routine update by a reporter, and was “immediately deleted”, Bloomberg said. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, but there is no suggestion that the news wire has recent news on his health. Most media organisations regularly update their pre-prepared obituaries of newsworthy figures.

The obituary, which has been obtained by a US gossip blog, contained blank spaces for Jobs’s age and cause of death to be inserted. The 2,500-word piece also included praise for Jobs from his rival Microsoft boss Bill Gates, details of his rise from college drop-out to technology billionaire, and a list of his family “survivors”. Details of friends and colleagues of the Apple founder to be contacted by Bloomberg in the event of his death were also published with the obituary. Bloomberg, which was founded by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and prides itself on its accuracy and transparency, later published a note acknowledging the story’s retraction on its wire.

“An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m.New York time today,” the message read. “The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted.” A Bloomberg spokeswoman said: “This was a routine update of a biography by the obits department, meant for the internal system and not meant for publication.

If I were a skeptical person, I’d be thinking stock manipulation. Cripes!