Chart of the day: Apple shares spike suddenly on high volume

No hard news, just rumors of a large buyback or special dividend

Click to enlarge.

FORTUNE -- After trading down all day -- and all year, for that matter -- Apple (AAPL) began moving higher at 2:26 p.m. Monday and didn't stop until it hit resistance at $438. The stock closed at $437.87, up $6.15 (1.42%) for the day.

Wall Street watchers were left scratching their heads.

• "What's up with AAPL?" was the headline on Barrons.
• "Apple Spikes on ... What Exactly?" quoth the Wall Street Journal
• "Apple Suddenly Popped And No One Knows Why" was the first take at Business Insider, followed within the hour by...
• "Noooooo, Apple! Don't Do A Special Dividend! Buy Back $50 Billion Of Stock!," with Henry Blodget's take on the rumors he's heard

Posted in: Apple, Buyback, Rumors, Shares, Special dividend, Spike

• 6 reasons Google could save Yahoo

  These days, Yahoo seems to be more about generating rumors than solid prospects for the future. So why would Google ever want to risk getting involved? Here are six potential reasons.

  By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

  FORTUNE -- If a company stays on the auction block long enough, rumors about its fate will eventually begin to repeat themselves. In 2008, while Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang insisted the web giant wasn't for sale, Microsoft MORE

  Oct 25, 2011 11:53 AM ET
  Posted in: Alibaba, Antitrust, buyout, China, display ads, Google, Jack Ma, Jerry Yang, Microsoft, Rumors, takeover, Yahoo

• Top 10 Macworld rumors for 2009

  Apple's (AAPL) last Macworld Conference and Expo opens Monday at San Francisco's Moscone Center, but the real action starts Tuesday at 9 a.m. PT (12 noon ET) with senior vice president Phil Schiller's opening remarks -- the first Macworld keynote not delivered by Steve Jobs since 1997.

  Nobody's expecting breakthrough products that rise to the level of the iMac (Macworld 1998), the iBook (1999), iTunes (2001) or the iPhone (2007), but MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 3, 2009 2:14 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Apple TV, iMac, iPhone, iPod, iPod Shuffle, iPod touch, Mac mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Macworld, Rumors, Snow Leopard, Steve Jobs, Time Capsule

• Yahoo/MSFT talks on, but not for acquisition

  By Yi-Wyn Yen

  A major Yahoo investor has been urging executives from both Microsoft and Yahoo in the past couple of weeks to revive their talks, and it looks like those efforts haven't gone to waste.

  A source at Microsoft told Fortune on Tuesday that while there was "no big deal" in the works - meaning a full acquisition of Yahoo - he implied that his company hasn't ruled out the possibility MORE

  yiwyn - Jun 24, 2008 4:16 PM ET
  Posted in: Advertising, Google, Microsoft, Rumors, Yahoo