On a related note, there's buzz that an internet rumor about a 90 day tariff pause caused a multi-billion dollar drop this mornings. I'm dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to the stock markets, but are we really at a point where internet rumors can do that kind of sudden damage to international markets?
Normal business mornings, I teeter from listening to baseball news, politics, and Fox Business (thank goodness no more Neal Cavuto).
But I digress as the market was going absolutely bonkers this morning so felt compelled to follow Stuart Varney on FBN. Here's precisely what happened:
This News Outlet Just Sent the Stock Market Into a Frenzy With Fake News About Trump's Tariffs
CNBC stepped in it big time when it published a headline claiming that President Donald Trump is considering a three-month pause on the tariffs he imposed last week. On its chyron, the network
claimed White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said “Trump is considering a 90-day pause in tariffs for all countries except China.”
The fake news spread like wildfire on social media, with many users reposting the false headline. The stock market spiked eight percentage points after the headline was reposted on X, as illustrated by Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal. Yet, after it was revealed that Hassett never said this, the market took a 3.5 percent drop.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt affirmed on Monday that there will be no pause in Trump’s tariff plan as CNBC intimated. A CNBC reported indicated that he spoke with Leavitt on a phone call and she told him it is “fake news that the White House is considering a 90-day pause” and that President Trump “is committed to his tariff regime and any reports that he’s considering a 90-day pause are ‘fake news.’”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/jeff-charles/2025/04/07/cnbc-publishes-false-headline-about-trump-pausing-tariffs-causing-stock-market-rollercoaster-n2655112Essentially, CNBC was pimping total fake news which sent the traders into buy mode for about 45 minutes.
All told, the Dow went from -1500 to +1100, and has now settled back to a few hundred down.
I'm certainly no stock market expert, that's just what happened.