President Donald Trump raised suspicions of market manipulation by offering a sneak peek at Friday's jobs report on social media.
The president posted a chart Thursday at 8:20 p.m. on Truth Social that included figures from the December employment report due out the next day showing the private sector added 654,000 jobs “since January,” which matched figures that were not published until 8:30 a.m. the following morning, reported Bloomberg.
"Someone probably made a lot of money off of this," posted MS NOW's Catherine Rampell. "The reason these numbers are kept under seal until 8:30am sharp is that they move markets."
The president and his economic team are typically briefed on the jobs report a day before it's published, but administration officials are forbidden by the Office of Management and Budget to comment on the data until 30 minutes after the report's release to allow the public time to analyze the policy-neutral statistics.
"In August 2023, OMB published in the Federal Register a request for public comments on an updated proposal to reduce the duration of the prohibition of commentary by employees of the Executive Branch following the PFEI release from one hour to 30 minutes," states OMB's Statistical Policy Directive No. 3. "OMB noted that it agreed with the previous comments on this issue submitted in 2019 and understood that maintaining some delay as part of Directive No. 3 continues to be important to maintain the bright line between the release of data and any commentary on such data by Executive Branch officials."
"OMB noted that it was considering this updated proposal because, while the delay is important to ensuring a bright line between the data release and the Executive Branch’s policy interpretation, since 1985 there have been many changes in the way the public communicates, as well as in how the relevant statistical agencies disseminate information," the directive adds.
Trump's post could have hinted to investors how the report could be analyzed, and market watchers were circulating his post on social media after the data's publication.
"It follows that Trump leaked the most market-moving economic numbers that exist," said Michigan economist Justin Wolfers. "I have no idea how illegal this is, or if the law even matters any more. But I do know this: It's unprecedented. No White House has ever before leaked such important market-moving numbers. No serious country does this."
