Now that wasn’t so hard, was it? Shares in Apple rallied on Monday on the admission that the group’s co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs is ill. The diagnosis – a hormone imbalance causing hitherto mysterious weight loss – is less serious than many had feared. Mr Jobs, who suffered from pancreatic cancer in 2004, will continue leading the company he has transformed. Wild rumours, swirling since the announcement three weeks ago that he would not make his annual keynote speech at industry conference Macworld, have now been quashed.

The episode might be dismissed as a seasonal storm in teacup. Stock watchers will have already noted that no company insiders were selling shares. The group’s decade-long renaissance has been built with the help of an adept consumer relations team. Using secrecy, a slow drip of information and considerable panache, Mr Jobs launched a series of slick music players, computers and phones with great success.