How one tweet wreaked havoc on the stock market

Summary

Amid a morning of pandemonium on Wall Street, a popular news aggregator on X, known as Walter Bloomberg, posted a false report declaring that President Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his controversial tariff proposal. This news was not true, and yet, index funds like the Dow Jones whipsawed, rapidly rising for a brief moment before suddenly dropping again. This type of volatility is more meaningful than a stock’s typical rise and fall through out any given day, which is why the false report garnered so much attention. Though the Walter Bloomberg account is not affiliated with any news organization and has no connection to Bloomberg News, the account has long been considered a reliable source of tech and business news. Rather than writing its own posts, Walter Bloomberg publicly posts news headlines as they hit the Bloomberg Terminal. The Bloomberg Terminal is an expensive subscription-only service that financial professionals use for real-time market data, which includes breaking news headlines. Sometimes, the headlines from outlets like CNBC and Bloomberg hit the Terminal before the stories are published online, making accounts like Walter Bloomberg a useful follow for quick news. On Monday, a series of reporting errors from CNBC and Reuters, which were then amplified by the Walter Bloomberg account on X, appears to have directly affected the stock market during an already chaotic day. The headline posted by Walter Bloomberg, which was deleted since it is not true, said: “HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA.” The White House’s rapid response team quote-tweeted the now-deleted Walter Bloomberg post and denied that Kevin Hassett, Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council, made these statements. To prove the point, this White House-affiliated account shared a clip from Fox News, where the false statement seems to have originated. In response to billionaire Bill Ackman’s plea for the Trump administrati...