How One Social Media Post Briefly Flipped Markets And Fueled False Hopes Of A Trump Tariff Reversal

Early on Monday, the S&P 500 (SPX) saw a significant spike, rising as much as 3.4% before resuming its slide on nervousness caused by President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz.

At the time, traders could not immediately confirm what caused it.

However, headlines started emerging on notable outlets, including CNBC and Reuters: Trump was reportedly considering pausing the roll-out of tariffs on all countries except China.

Markets briefly cheered the buzz as Trump's trade policy announcements from last week had caused a meltdown in global bourses.

News outlets reported the development based on an X post from the anonymous handle Walter Bloomberg, known to re-share real-time news updates from Reuters' and Bloomberg's paid terminal services.

The original post, now taken down, read: "HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA", attributing the news to White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett.

However, the news was anything but true. 

The White House said the remarks attributed to Hassett were "fake news".

The stock market quickly plummeted again, just as CNBC and Reuters issued corrections, according to a Bloomberg News report, which added that Bloomberg News did not report on the social media post.

Walter Bloomberg has over 853,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, and boasts a solid following from retail investors to journalists for breaking news.

When asked on X where the news was sourced from, Walter Bloomberg said that the headline he posted was from Reuters.

Reuters, in turn, told TechCrunch that it published the tariffs-pause story, drawing from a headline on CNBC.

It wasn't clear where the news originated, and investors resumed their selloffs. The see-saw move lasted all but 15 minutes, according to Bloomberg News.

On X, one user remarked how much damage had been done because of a handle that carried a verified “blue check mark,” which was rolled out as a paid feature by Elon Musk when he bought Twitter.

“Most paid blue check marks cost $8 a month. We just saw one that cost people billions,” the post read.  

The S&P 500 dropped 0.23%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 0.91%, and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ) ended 0.10% lower.

Also, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), Wall Street's fear gauge, ended the day at 46.98, its highest close in five years.

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