(Bloomberg) -- Who wants to be commander-in-chief when you can be chief asset strategist for global financial markets?
U.S. President Donald Trump hasn't been shy about using Twitter to deliver pronouncements about an increasingly wide range of asset classes. Celebrating the success of equities at the index level and lambasting single firms have been common refrains from the president when he moonlights as a sell-side analyst.
But stocks aren't the only asset class he'll opine on. Earlier this week, Trump accused Russia and China of “playing the Currency Devaluation game as the U.S. keeps raising interest rates,” adding that this was “Not acceptable!”
Now the president is out with an updated price target on crude: lower.
“Looks like OPEC is at it again,” Trump tweeted Friday morning. “With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea, Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!”
West Texas Intermediate and Brent front-month crude futures moved lower after the micro-blog missive. Oil ministers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates expressed disagreement with the U.S. president's view.
To be fair, Saudi Arabia's purported ambition to get oil near $80 a barrel was enough to move global oil prices earlier this month, so it isn't unreasonable to suspect Trump might be able to have an impact on crude as well, however fleeting.
But the president's track record as a raw materials prognosticator might give investors cause to believe he's a contrarian indicator.
“Despite the Aluminum Tariffs, Aluminum prices are DOWN 4%,” he tweeted on April 6. “People are surprised, I'm not!” Since then, the metal has lurched upward.
Finance Twitter is wondering just what market trend the president will comment on next. A few Twittizens weighed in:
To contact the reporter on this story: Luke Kawa in New York at lkawa@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Andrew Dunn, Eric J. Weiner
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
