The global risk market experienced a dramatic 20 minutes. A rumor about "the U.S. considering a tariff pause" spread like wildfire, triggering violent fluctuations in global capital markets—the Dow surged 300 points in an instant, gold plummeted, and Bitcoin shot up to the $79,000 mark. However, when the White House spokesperson firmly denied it, all asset prices deflated like a punctured balloon, completing a thrilling cycle within half an hour.
The starting point of this farce was actually a "creative misinterpretation" of an official's statement:
When National Economic Council Director Hassett was asked whether he was considering pausing tariffs, his ambiguous response was processed by social media into "the White House is considering a 90-day tariff pause." This carefully edited "news" spread virally on Twitter, creating a tsunami of information fueled by algorithms, making it difficult for professional traders to discern truth from falsehood.
The market enacted a modern version of "three men make a tiger" with real money. Gold fell below the psychological threshold of $3,000 in just 30 minutes, Bitcoin recovered a key support level, and the Dow's gains instantly surpassed 1%. This collective frenzy exposed the fragility of capital markets—under the shadow of trade wars, any policy rumor can trigger a herd effect. As hedge fund manager Peter said: "The current market is like a startled bird, even a shadow can trigger a stampede."
The most ironic twist of this farce occurred 20 minutes later. When the official White House account issued a statement about "fake news", the dollar index immediately turned downward, and safe-haven funds rushed back into the bond market. This dramatic reversal reveals a new risk in the digital age: the boundary between "fake news" spread by algorithms and real policies is becoming blurred, posing unprecedented challenges to the pricing mechanisms of capital markets.
Interestingly, this incident coincided with the eve of the U.S. CPI data release. The market's excessive sensitivity to inflation data essentially reflects deep anxiety about policy uncertainty. Like a ship navigating through fog, traders have to struggle to steer through fragments of information that are hard to discern as true or false. This 20-minute farce may very well be a rehearsal for the new normal of capital markets in the digital age—when the speed of information dissemination surpasses verification capabilities, rational pricing is becoming a luxury.