Imo you are maybe not giving enough credit to the potential effect of the news venues that have published news of the judge signing the deal and making it official.
When it was announced that there would be a deal, a few news outlets picked it up, but not necessarily the biggest ones. Now that the judge has actually put his signature on it, we have more and larger news sources reporting it. For instance CNN is a name I never saw on this board until yesterday. It means the news is getting to a wider investing audience, not just people entrenched in the finance world or folks who already followed GT and Apple news. I believe, while not dramatic maybe, yesterday's news will have a significant effect.