An 18-year old has been questioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a posting he allegedly made on CNN that Steve Jobs had been hospitalised with a suspected heart attack.

The report, which was posted on CNN’s iReport site for ‘citizen journalists’ stated that Jobs had been rushed to hospital with "severe chest pains and shortness of breath". It caused panic on the stock market and briefly wiped billions from Apple's stock value.

The SEC launched an investigation to see if the report had been part of an attempt to benefit from stock manipulation, but it now seems it was nothing more than a childish prank.

Bloomberg is reporting that the SEC has uncovered no evidence of suspicious stock trading and this may let the teenager off the hook.

“If the posting wasn't directly related to a purchase or sale it's questionable the SEC would have jurisdiction,” said Michael Missal, a former enforcement lawyer at the agency and now in private practice at K&L Gates LLP in Washington.

“That's not to say some other agency of the US government couldn't take action if it felt a law was violated.”

Jobs has been dogged by persistent rumours about his health after a bout of cancer in 2004, something he has taken to joking about.