On most browsers, the text below will say "Testing @ 5pm." And the text will be a link to http://www.example.com/. On IE8, the text of the link will be http://www.example.com/. If you take the @ sign out of the text of the value in the JS code, it renders fine.
Static text: Testing @ 5pm.
Static text without at: Testing 5pm.
Dynamic text, virtual element:
Static href: Testing @ 5pm.
Href set via setAttribute: Testing @ 5pm.
Href set via property: Testing @ 5pm.