A massive, perfectly timed surge in futures trading just minutes before President Donald Trump announced a halt to planned strikes on Iran has sparked immense outrage, with lawmakers and veteran traders alleging blatant market manipulation.
Unexplained Pre-Market Surge
According to a CNBC report, trading volumes for S&P 500 e-Mini futures and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures spiked anomalously at 6:50 a.m. in New York. In the typically thin liquidity of early trading hours, this sudden burst stood out as one of the largest volume moments of the session.
Exactly 15 minutes later, at 7:05 a.m., Trump posted on Truth Social that the U.S. and Iran had held talks and that he was canceling planned strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. Immediately following the announcement, S&P 500 futures soared over 2.5%, while WTI crude dropped nearly 6%.
Market analyst Adam Cochran noted that $1.5 billion in S&P 500 futures were bought and $192 million in oil futures were sold in a single clip right before the news broke—a trade size four to six times larger than normal.
Demands For Transparency
The highly suspicious timing prompted an immediate political and financial backlash. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) directly accused the administration of foul play, stating on X that “Trump insiders may be getting richer” off the perfectly timed trades while average families suffer.
Asserting that this alleged “insider trading must be stopped,” Schiff issued a firm ultimatum: “The White House must release its transaction reports. Now.”
Veteran commodities trader Peter Brandt echoed these sharp sentiments, stating there is “ZERO doubt” in his mind that “Trump money was behind this buying.”
Brandt claimed the President’s orbit is playing the markets like a fiddle. The SEC and CME Group have thus far declined to comment on the anomaly.
International Taunts
The controversy has also drawn commentary from Tehran. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf mocked the situation online, stating Iran is aware of the manipulation in the “paper oil” market.
Dismissing the broader “jawboning campaign,” Ghalibaf taunted the U.S. to see if they can turn those sudden digital profits into “actual fuel” at the pump.
Markets Fall In 2026
At the last check after Tuesday’s market close, the S&P 500 index tumbled 4.40%, whereas the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones declined 6.34% and 4.67%, respectively, year-to-date.
On the other hand, the ETF tracking WTI Crude futures, United States Oil Fund LP (NYSE:USO), has risen 66.10% in the same period.
Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively, closed lower on Tuesday. The SPY was down 0.34% at $653.18, while the QQQ declined 0.68% to $583.98.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
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