I’ll be the first to admit that, beyond the basics, I have no idea how the stock market works – math wasn’t my strong suit in school. But, holy hell, if this peek behind the curtain is true, then the global financial markets – particularly those having to do with oil – are run by goddamned morons.
From Reuters:
Oil traders razor-focused on signs of escalating violence in the Middle East were jolted on Thursday by a Twitter posting from the Israeli military that, at first glance, suggested they had just bombed Syrian airports. […] The Tweet was true, but it wasn’t news. The posting referred to an attack 40 years ago in the Yom Kippur war, the latest in a series of Tweets from the Israel Defense Forces Twitter handle (@IDFSpokesperson) commemorating the war.
Here, for your evaluation, is the offending tweet:
Oct. 10 #YomKippur73: Israel Air Force bombards airports in Syria to prevent Soviet weapons reaching the Syrian Army http://t.co/tKnMzYjgFF
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) October 10, 2013
So, a bunch of (presumably) highly paid oil specialists are bamboozled by a single fucking tweet; A tweet which describes in not at all ambiguous terms events that happened 40 years ago – If the #YomKippur73 hashtag wasn’t a dead giveaway, name dropping the Soviets should’ve been, right? Wrong – The result?
Oil prices jumped $1 as the talk raced through oil markets, which frequently react quickly to rumors of geopolitical events and where traders have increasingly turned to the Internet and social media for advance warning of escalating risks, from the Arab Spring to the Iranian nuclear standoff.
And you wonder why you’re paying over $3.50 for a gallon of gas.
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