Reuters ahead as Maguire CEO rejects bankruptcy, shares rebound

Shares of cash-starved Maguire Properties turned from a 10-percent loss to a 25-percent gain after Reuters reported on August 10 that the troubled real estate investment trust was rejecting the possibility of a bankruptcy filing. Maguire’s CEO made the emphatic comment on a conference call with analysts, after the company disclosed a big quarterly loss and said it was walking away from several properties bought at the peak of the commercial real estate market. Reuters’ headlines from the call were unmatched by Dow Jones until a full 24 minutes later, while Bloomberg merely incorporated the bankruptcy denial in its stories some two hours later. Maguire stock closed with a 17-percent advance in heavy trading that marked a seven-fold increase over its typical daily volume, and it gained a further 9 percent the following morning, also in a down market.