President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival to the White House, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Here’s a known: President Trump announced on Truth Social at 7:05 a.m. on Monday, March 23, that he would postpone strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure for five days, canceling his 48-hour deadline issued the Friday before. Bloomberg News reports that at 6:49 a.m., “at least 6 million barrels of Brent and West Texas Intermediate were sold in … two minutes.” Bloomberg adds, “The average for the same time period over the previous five trading days was about … 700,000 barrels.”
So, 8.5 times the average volume of oil futures changed hands just 15 minutes before Trump made an announcement guaranteed to send oil prices down — and stocks up.
I checked stock futures at about 6 a.m. that Monday morning; they were solidly down. But shortly thereafter, some 6,000 U.S. stock futures contracts were traded, which represented a sharp increase in the normal volume. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 900 points that day. In this energy-rattled market, when oil prices are down, stocks usually go up. And investors in the know can make a lot of money.
Here’s an unknown: coincidence or connection?
Here’s another known: National Review’s Andrew McCarthy has published a five-part series focusing on World Liberty Financial, a decentralized financial platform promoting Trump’s USD1 stablecoin and other cryptocurrencies. Trump and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, along with Eric Trump and Witkoff’s son, Zach, created World Liberty Financial in September 2024 — right before the election.
Read the full original article on TheHill.com