It was a roller coaster day at RevMed, where my wife works. The Wall Street Journal (Apple News+), in a report by Jonathan D. Rockoff, Lauren Thomas, and Cara Lombardo at 2:48 pm EST today:

AbbVie is in advanced talks to buy cancer-drug biotech Revolution Medicines, according to people familiar with the matter.

Revolution Medicines has a market value of around $16 billion. It couldn’t be learned how much AbbVie is offering, but including a typical deal premium, Revolution could be valued at around $20 billion or more.
 
A deal could come together soon, granted the talks don’t hit any last-minute snags, the people said.

The news sent Revolution Medicine’s (RVMD) stock soaring as much as 30%, briefly touching $105, while AbbVie’s (ABBV) stock saw a comparatively modest 5% surge from its open.

Ninety minutes later, Puyaan Singh at Reuters reported there’s no such deal in the works:

AbbVie on Wednesday denied it was in talks to buy Revolution Medicines […]

The company “is not in discussions with Revolution Medicines,” AbbVie said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Revolution Medicines dropped nearly 14% after hours, and AbbVie lost most of its gains, too.

Three possibilities occur to me:

1. The WSJ completely bungled their facts.
2. Someone successfully leveraged WSJ for stock manipulation.
3. The leak caused one party to walk (“is not in discussions”).

Whatever the reason, someone undoubtedly made oodles of money, and the Wall Street Journal is wiping egg from its face.

Update: The WSJ has now revised their headline, from “AbbVie Near Deal for Revolution Medicines” to “Revolution Medicines Draws Takeover Interest,” with a subhead “AbbVie said to be among suitors.” The paper also congratulated itself on the rise of RevMed (“Its shares were trading up around 30% after the Journal’s report”).

Previously.