How Influential is 1 Tweet? $3.5 Trillion worth of Volatility. [Read It And Eat 08-04-2025]

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Major Headlines 

• The Tweet that added $3.6 Trillion Dollars back into the markets and took it away again

• If the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to one of your tweets was a like from an ex, you’ve got nothing on Walter Bloomberg, an X user with ~850k followers who appears to have accidentally set off a brief stock market rally with a single post yesterday. Stocks opened with the S&P 500 down 4.7% and in bear market territory, but after the account—which regularly shares financial news but has no relationship to the Bloomberg news organization—posted that White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett had said President Trump was considering a 90-day pause on all tariffs besides those on China, stocks began soaring within 34 minutes. The supposed possible pause got picked up by news outlets like CNBC, helping to push the S&P up 8.5%, putting it back into the green and adding $3.6 trillion in market value, per Business Insider. A hell of a swing and a miss, but a much-needed win for the White House. AP News

  
  

  But the rally didn’t last, mostly because Hassett never actually said those remarks—the tweet appeared to be referencing a pretty noncommital statement that he did make, saying “the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide” when asked about a potential pause by a Fox News reporter. The White House quickly derided the idea of a pause as “fake news,” which sent stocks plummeting. Since volatile times call for careful tweeting, the Walter Bloomberg account deleted the post and shared headlines about the denial

• Global Responses To Tariffs

• The European Commission has proposed imposing 25% counter-tariffs on a selection of U.S. goods in retaliation to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium originally enacted by President Donald Trump. According to a document seen by Reuters, some of the new EU tariffs will come into effect on May 16, with others scheduled for December 1 later this year. The move highlights ongoing tensions in transatlantic trade policy and could lead to further escalation. Reuters

  China's foreign ministry has accused the US of "economic bullying" and "destabilizing" the world's economies. In a news briefing, which you can watch in our previous post, a spokesperson for the ministry said America's "abuse" of tariffs "seriously infringes" on the interests of countries around the world. "China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this. Let me stress once again that trade wars have no winners," Lin Jian told reporters. "The Chinese people never create trouble, nor do we fear trouble. Extorting China is not the right way to engage with us." He said China would do what is "necessary to firmly safeguard its legitimate and lawful rights and interests." "If the US insists on waging the tariffs war and trade war regardless of the interest of both countries and the international community, China will play along to the end," Jian added. Guardian

• Japan stocks rise over 6% as Asia-Pacific markets rebound

• Asia-Pacific markets traded higher on Tuesday following a steep selloff in the previous session, sparked by renewed U.S. tariff threats against China. Japan’s Nikkei 225 led the rally, jumping 6.41%, while the broader Topix index surged 6.81%. South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.7% and the Kosdaq rose 2.35%.

  In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index gained 2.25%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index rebounded 4.17%. These gains followed Monday’s historic plunge, when the Hang Seng Index dropped over 13%—its sharpest one-day loss since 1997. Mainland China’s CSI Index also saw modest gains, inching up 0.24%. CBNC

• US Supreme Court backs Trump on deportations under 1798 law

• A divided Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to use a controversial wartime authority to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, but said detainees must first have an opportunity to challenge their deportations.

  The 5-4 ruling did not touch on the underlying legal questions about the government’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, one of the most high-profile and contentious immigration enforcement actions so far in President Donald Trump’s second term.

  Instead, the majority ruled that the five Venezuelan immigrants who challenged the policy did so in the wrong court, leaving open the possibility that those targeted for deportation could refile their case in Texas or other jurisdictions where they are detained.

  “The detainees are confined in Texas, so the venue is improper in the District of Columbia,” the justices wrote of the challenge in U.S. District Court in D.C. “As a result, the Government is likely to succeed on the merits of this action.” The ruling said detainees are entitled to notice within a reasonable time frame and must have an opportunity to challenge their removal, including the government’s use of the wartime act. The court’s three liberal justices forcefully dissented, joined in part by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The liberals warned of potential “life or death consequences” from the majority’s order and criticized their colleagues, saying their ruling “flouts well-established limits ... creates new law on the emergency docket, and elides the serious threat our intervention poses to the lives of individual detainees.”They emphasized that the court’s order on Monday means the government cannot again usher any detainees onto planes in “a shroud of secrecy” and without a hearing, as it did on March 15.

  “Nor can the Government “immediately resume” removing individuals without notice,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Barrett. “To the extent, the Government removes even one individual without affording him notice and a meaningful opportunity” to contest a planned deportation, she added, “it does so in direct contravention of an edict by the United States Supreme Court.”Reuters

Minor Headlines 

• European battery energy storage segment sees strong investor interest despite renewables headwinds. Mergermarket

• Florida rallies past Houston to win March Madness 2025 NCAA championship New York Times

• A revolution is underway in India’s trainer industry. BBC

• Belgian prince loses bid for benefits on top of £300k royal allowance BBC

• Insect protein startup Ÿnsect replaces CEO, secures €10m bridge funding SiftedEu

• London Stock Exchange welcomes Governor Samuel Garcia from Nuevo León, Mexico London Stock Exchange

• Legal ethics roundup spotlights Biden disbarment and calls to end ABA oversight in Texas Above the Law

• McDermott shutters Singapore office ending Asia presence The Global Post

• American Airlines hires Latham & Watkins partner to lead legal team The Global Post

• Nikola founder Trevor Milton eyes bankrupt startup’s asset buyout Techcrunch

• OpenAI reportedly mulls acquiring Ive and Altman’s AI hardware venture Techcrunch

Gen Z Word of the day 

Flex:

Showing off or boasting about something

Example: "She’s always flexing her new phone.”