Amid a morning of pandemonium on Wall Street, a popular news aggregator on X, known as Walter Bloomberg, posted a false report declaring that President Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his controversial tariff proposal.
This news was not true, and yet, index funds like the Dow Jones whipsawed — rapidly rising, before reversing course minutes later. This type of volatility is more meaningful than a stock’s typical rise and fall throughout any given day, which is why the false report garnered so much attention.
Though the Walter Bloomberg account is not affiliated with any news organization and has no connection to Bloomberg News, the account has long been considered a reliable source of tech and business news. Rather than writing its own posts, Walter Bloomberg publicly posts news headlines as they hit the Bloomberg Terminal.
The Bloomberg Terminal is an expensive subscription-only service that financial professionals use for real-time market data, which includes breaking news headlines. Sometimes, the headlines from outlets like CNBC and Bloomberg hit the Terminal before the stories are published online, making accounts like Walter Bloomberg a useful follow for quick news.
On Monday, a series of reporting errors from CNBC and Reuters, which were then amplified by the Walter Bloomberg account on X, appears to have directly affected the stock market during an already chaotic day.
The headline posted by Walter Bloomberg, which was deleted since it is not true, said: “HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA.”
The White House’s rapid response team quote-tweeted the now-deleted Walter Bloomberg post and denied that Kevin Hassett, Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, made these statements.
To prove the point, this White House-affiliated account shared a clip from Fox News, where the false statement seems to have originated.
In response to billionaire Bill Ackman’s plea for the Trump administration to institute a 90-day pause on the tariff plan, an anchor on Fox asked Hassett, “Would you do a 90-day pause? Would you consider that?”
Hassett responded, “You know, I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide… But I would urge everyone, especially Bill, to ease off the rhetoric a little bit.”
When asked on X where he got this news from, Walter Bloomberg said that the headline he posted was from Reuters.
Walter Bloomberg did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
In a statement, Reuters told TechCrunch: “Reuters, drawing from a headline on CNBC, published a story on April 7 saying White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett had said that President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day tariff pause on all countries except China. The White House denied the report. Reuters has withdrawn the incorrect report and regrets its error.”
So, Walter Bloomberg pointed the finger at Reuters, which then pointed the finger at CNBC.
A CNBC spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement, “As we were chasing the news of the market moves in real-time, we aired unconfirmed information in a banner. Our reporters quickly made a correction on air.”
Walter Bloomberg broke from its typical robotic tone with a simple “wtf,” then screenshotted the Terminal’s report from CNBC that said that the White House is not aware of any plan for a 90-day pause.
It’s likely that Wall Street traders saw this news on the Terminal itself, not from the Walter Bloomberg aggregator. But people outside of the financial sector rely upon accounts like Walter Bloomberg to mimic the rapid news access of the Terminal.
