Again drawing K-lines? Trump reverses course: Intense strike against Iran paused
As expected, once the weekend arrives, Trump is back at his stock market chart-drawing antics.
On the 1st, Trump announced on social media that, at the "request" of Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, he would cancel the planned strike against Iran.
To be fair, Trump’s reversal comes as no surprise—and in fact has grown almost numbing: since the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran conflict, he has at least four times claimed he canceled strikes against Iran “at the request” of certain countries;
If we count by “weekend flip-flops,” this is already his eighth time making tough threats before the weekend, only to backtrack just before Monday arrives.
The real reason Trump keeps repeating this pattern is to manipulate the futures market: his tough statements are usually released after U.S. stock market close, just before Asian trading begins—causing oil prices to spike instantly and stock index futures to plummet;
Then, just before the U.S. stock market opens on Monday, he suddenly announces that “negotiations are progressing well” and that the strike is “paused,” triggering a sharp drop in oil prices and a violent rebound in U.S. stock futures.
The most telling example was on March 23rd, when, just 15 minutes before Trump boasted about progress in U.S.-Iran negotiations on social media, there was an odd surge in trading volume—worth approximately $580 million in notional value—in both crude oil and S&P futures. This moment was directly questioned by Iranian Parliament Speaker Kalibaf, who accused Trump of using fake news to manipulate financial and oil markets.
Therefore, when Trump’s bluster and sudden reversals have become a formulaic routine, this whole performance is no longer a major news story—it's simply about one thing: making money.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1872415651615755/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.