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.