Ed Elson

But then, as usual, we got some clarifications that complicated things.

Iran denied having any direct talks to end the war, and the nation's foreign ministry said they'd had no negotiations with the U.S.

That was when stocks started to fall back down again, as investors reckoned with the possibility that the president might be, once again, talking out of his arse.

Is that really what was happening here?

Was he lying?

I guess we don't know, but I guess that is also kind of the point.

And this was yet another reminder that anything that comes out of the president's mouth cannot really be taken seriously, especially if you are an investor.

And we know this because we've seen it over and over again.

Two weeks ago, for example, Trump told us that the war with Iran was, quote, very complete.

Investors bought that news.

And then here we are two weeks later, and the war continues to rage on.

Before that, we had the debacle with Greenland.

where Trump suggested America would simply take Greenland, and he refused to rule out the use of military force.

Investors sold on that news.

$1.2 trillion in market value was erased.

But then he got bored of that idea, and then he decided to move on to the next thing.

Last year, he suggested firing Jerome Powell.

He said his termination, quote, cannot come fast enough.

Everyone sold, and then he turned around, and he said he had, quote, no intention of firing him.

He did the same thing with, of course, the tariffs.