Did Trump's ‘buy’ tip before tariff pause spark US market rally? Experts reply
Trump on Wednesday afternoon said he “authorized a 90 day pause” on reciprocal tariffs for countries that didn’t retaliate against the US
US President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on higher tariffs for countries except China.
Before the announcement, he had tried to reassure investors, posting on his Truth Social account, "BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!"
Later, he added,"THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!"
The S&P 500 ended 9.5% higher, while the Nasdaq rose 12.2% in its biggest one-day gain since January 3, 2001, and its second-biggest on record.
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However, several market analysts are questioning Trump's statement earlier in the day that might have indicated the massive sell-off in stocks.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai wrote,"It is the responsibility of the President of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering."
Another curiosity of the posting was Trump's signoff with his initials.
DJT is also the stock symbol for Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of the president's social media platform Truth Social.
What experts said?
“He's loving this, this control over markets, but he better be careful,” Trump critic and former White House ethics lawyer, Richard Painter, told AP, noting that securities law prohibits trading on insider information or helping others do so. “The people who bought when they saw that post made a lot of money.”
“It’s been a roller-coaster ride for the past week and we know one thing is for certain: if there’s any certainty in investing, that one certainty is that markets and investors don’t like uncertainty,” Ryan Nauman at Zephyr, told Bloomberg.
Kathleen Clark, a government ethics law expert at Washington University School of Law, told AP that Trump's post in other administrations would have been investigated, but is not likely not to trigger any reaction, save for maybe more Truth Social viewers.
“He's sending the message that he can effectively and with impunity manipulate the market. As in: Watch this space for future stock tips," she added.
(With agency inputs)
