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How a game of broken telephone added then subtracted $4 trillion in market value

The news may have been fake, but the market’s desire for tariff relief is very, very real.

4/7/25 1:32PM

President Trump’s top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, appeared on Fox News on Monday morning and said nothing particularly remarkable. Then the stock market ripped, adding roughly $4 trillion in value, before giving it back.

Markets reacted to a headline that appeared on Bloomberg terminals, X, and other forums where investors have been watching the value of stocks sink as Trump’s tariff policy threatens to upend global trade and push the US economy into a recession. The alert — which according to 404 Media originated from Benzinga, leaning on misquotes of Hassett on X — said: “HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA”

Often headlines for important, fast-moving news will appear on Bloomberg terminals or other market data services first before details are available. (Misattributing the sourcing of this headline amid the frenzy was something our markets editor dropped the ball on, too.)

Eager for good news, traders (and algorithms set up to respond to headlines) bought back stocks, temporarily erasing some of the heavy losses global markets have withstood since “Liberation Day.” The problem was, the administration hadn’t actually budged on tariffs.

When asked by Fox News if the president would consider a 90-day pause, Hassett responded, “I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide.” Somehow that was misconstrued, more than an hour after the interview, to mean tariff relief is on the table.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNBC the headline going around was “fake news,” a term Trump’s camp uses often but was unusually appropriate today.

The headline spread like wildfire on X, where it was picked up by a class of day trader accounts that tweet breaking news headlines, usually from real news sources, but don’t include attribution or a link. One of them, who goes by the name Walter Bloomberg, has been catching some of the flack for the mistake and said they got the headline from Reuters.

the most remarkable thing about this clip is that, in this moment of massive volatility, CNBC was fine with running with speculative language about a Hassett quote they couldn't source. "I think we can run with this headline," "we'll try and source that exactly" — huh! https://t.co/8Uju01mGZO
— Corbin Bolies (@CorbinBolies) April 7, 2025

A spokesperson for Reuters told Sherwood News that its headline was “drawing from a headline on CNBC.” The network did run that headline on air, but its unclear if it was drawing from its own newsroom’s reporting or if it was the same headline everyone else was fooled by.

“Reuters has withdrawn the incorrect report and regrets its error,” the spokesperson said. Comcast, which owns CNBC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment but confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that it ran “unconfirmed information in a banner” on air.

The finger-pointing over who’s responsible for the $4 trillion screwup will likely continue, but one thing it did make clear amid the chaos and confusion is that investors desperately want relief from tariffs, and any easing on those import taxes stands to reverse some of the stock market’s hefty losses.

Jon Keegan45m

Meta shares rally as Jefferies says it’s a bargain relative to Mag 7 peers

Shares of Meta rallied over 5% today, as Jefferies analyst Brent Thill doubled down on his buy rating for the company, calling the stock a relative bargain compared to its Magnificent 7 peers. The analyst set a price target of $910, well above the $645 where the stock is trading today.

News out of Davos this week that Meta’s first models from its revamped AI teams are “very good” align with Thill’s argument that the company is well positioned to get back in the AI race with the “all-star model,” which is expected to be released in the first half of the year.

Recent cuts to its Reality Labs also signal that the company is focusing its spending where it matters. The Jefferies note also said the recent monetization of Threads via ads will help boost revenue.

Next week, Meta reports its fourth-quarter earnings, and Thill expects that even if Meta raises its 2026 capex outlook, investors won’t be spooked, as the company has been clear that spending may continue to be high.

Matt Phillips3h

Arista Networks rips higher amid jump in call buying

Arista Networks, a maker of switches and other networking equipment used in AI data centers, was on track for its best day of the new year on Thursday as options traders went bullish on the stock.

As of around 11 a.m. ET, there was nearly twice as much call buying in Arista than its 10-day moving average for a full day of activity. Buying call options to make leveraged bets on price increases has been a favorite trading tactic of retail traders in recent years.

Otherwise, there weren’t clear headlines tied to today’s outsized move, but the stock has been getting attention lately: in a note published earlier this month, Goldman Sachs analysts spotlighted Arista as a top tactical trade for earnings season, saying the shares — which they rate a “buy” — could rise 20% over the next year.

“ANET is well positioned amidst ongoing data center spending growth, where its position as a best of breed provider of networking equipment should advantage the company, particularly as data center networks become increasingly complex,” Goldman analysts wrote in the January 8 report.

And recent reports also say Microsoft — which accounted for 20% of Arista’s revenue in 2024, according to Goldman Sachs — is planning a massive expansion of its Wisconsin data center project.

Arista stock did get a lift following the release of solid US economic numbers at 8:30 a.m. that seemed fairly specific to Arista itself. (There was no similar bounce from competitors like Cisco or Hewlett-Packard.)

Microsoft receives preliminary approval for $13.3B data center expansion in Mount Pleasant - Milwaukee Business Journal

And recent reports also say Microsoft — which accounted for 20% of Arista’s revenue in 2024, according to Goldman Sachs — is planning a massive expansion of its Wisconsin data center project.

Luke Kawa3h

Investors just made a mammoth $133 billion flip from cash to stocks, per Goldman Sachs

It’s a dash from cash, with investors taking billions in dry powder and pouring that money into the stock market.

“We saw strong net flows into global equity funds last week, led by stronger inflows into US and EM equity funds (+$71 billion vs $2 billion in the previous week) — more than 35x-ed the flows,” wrote Goldman Sachs’ Gail Hafif, Brian Garrett, and Lee Coppersmith. “While equity flows increase, money market fund assets fell by $62 billion. This is the 3rd largest level in our dataset (!).”

The trio is bullish on US stocks, seeing “the case for contained selloffs coupled with relief rallies as the most likely path forward in the near term.”

Luke Kawa

Retail traders’ monthly appetite for stocks ascends to fresh record

“The current ‘new year’ momentum has been sustained and has now pushed retail activity to an all-time high on a rolling monthly basis,” according to JPMorgan.

BRITAIN-LONDON-FIREWORKS-NEW YEAR-CELEBRATION

J. Edward Moreno4h

Moderna extends rally on positive cancer vaccine results

Moderna has more than doubled since it announced on Tuesday that its cancer vaccine reduced the risk of relapse or death for melanoma patients.

The five-year data from a Phase 2b trial showed that Moderna’s vaccine, when used with Merck’s blockbuster treatment Keytruda, reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 49% compared with Keytruda alone. The news gave investors hope that Moderna, which is best known for quickly developing a COVID-19 vaccine, may soon have another lucrative product in its portfolio.

Last week, Moderna said it expects to report total 2025 revenue of $1.9 billion, on the high end of its latest guidance of between $1.6 billion and $2 billion, amid better-than-expected vaccination rates. As demand for the COVID-19 vaccine, its sole revenue-generating product, has tanked, the company has aggressively cut costs and focused on expanding its portfolio.

The combination of positive announcements early in the year has made Moderna the second-best performer in the S&P 500 Index in 2026, behind newfound AI darling Sandisk.