[Infowarrior] - False Rumor of Explosion at White House Causes Stocks to Briefly Plunge; AP Confirms Its Twitter Feed Was Hacked

[Richard Forno]

False Rumor of Explosion at White House Causes Stocks to Briefly Plunge; AP Confirms Its Twitter Feed Was Hacked

 Published: Tuesday, 23 Apr 2013 | 1:38 PM ET

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100646197

A fake news agency tweet about explosions at the White House injuring President Obama sent markets into a tailspin which was quickly reversed when it was proven false.

@AP, the official twitter handle of the respected Associated Press news agency, sent out a message at about 1:07 p.m. ET, saying "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is Injured." The AP quickly said it was hacked.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "the President is fine" despite what the hacked Twitter feed said.

However, the market impact was already intense. On the floor at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, traders quickly traded on the tweet, selling S&P futures and buying Treasury 10-year futures. For several minutes, the floor was a flurry of activity, as it was in trading rooms across Wall Street, until the Associated Press tweeted that its account had been hacked.

The Dow plunged more than 140 points and bond yields snapped lower. Within six minutes, the Dow recovered its  losses in a roller coaster ride.

"You wonder who did it and whether it was done on purpose. It certainly was an instant implosion," said Art Cashin, of UBS, who watched the minutes of bedlam on the floor of the NYSE.

Cashin said the reaction was especially dramatic because it said the president was injured.


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