Shares of Microsoft were up 2.13 to 98.75 in late trading following a report by CNBC of rumors that the software giant and the Justice Department were close to a settlement in the government_s antitrust case.

Microsoft declined to comment on the rumors. A Justice Department spokesperson said: "The settlement rumors are unfounded." Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found Microsoft was a predatory monopoly. Since then the federal government, 19 states and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft have been involved in settlement talks in Chicago with judge Richard Posner. "There may be some kind of settlement, but nobody can get their hands around what it is, or if it is some kind of rumor. The stock is acting pretty well, and whether it is buying on the rumor, I don_t know," said Ned Collins, head of trading, Daiwa Securities America.