CNBC And Reuters Fuel Market Chaos With Inaccurate Reporting — Then Point Fingers After the Mistake

The Dow Jones Industrial Average spiked and then crashed on Monday morning after an inaccurate claim, apparently started on social media, went viral and somehow made its way onto the air at CNBC and into the reporting of Reuters.

The reporting was an incorrect summation of remarks from Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, which said that during an interview with Fox News he claimed that President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day pause on sweeping his global tariffs.

The botched reporting created a sharp uptick that was a brief bright spot as stocks cratered on Monday as a result of Trump’s ongoing global trade war. Overall, the reporting created a multi-trillion dollar swing in the market.

While the true origin of the false reporting is unclear, CNN suggested it may have originated from several unreliable news aggregating accounts on X.

Soon after those accounts posted the news, Reuters ran a headline that read, “Wall Street reverses course after Hassett’s comments on tariff pause.” The opening sentence of the report stated: “Wall Street’s main indexes reversed course and moved sharply higher after White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said in an interview that President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day tariff pause on all countries expect China.”

A few hours later, Reuters withdrew the story and said, “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 Reuters has withdrawn the incorrect report and regrets its error.”

During CNBC’s coverage on Monday morning, co-anchor Carl Quintanilla told his colleagues, “I think we can go with this headline. Apparently, Hassett’s been saying that Trump will consider a 90-day pause in tariffs for all countries except for China.”

As the panel all added, “That’s huge,” Quintanilla’s co-host cautioned, “We’ll try and source that exactly in terms of where that’s coming from, you know. But to your point, longer term, let’s say, OK, we get a 90-day pause. I don’t know. I’m curious to get your thoughts about credibility.” CNBC also reported on quote in its news chyron at the bottom of the screen.

CNBC later ran a comment from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the report “fake news.”

“The White House dismissed a wire headline that said Trump is considering pausing new tariffs for 90 days,” reported CNBC’s live blog.

CNBC spokeswoman later commented on the error: “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.”