Ross: Why investors need to ‘unfollow’ the president

It’s probably a good thing the stock market is closed Wednesday because way too many investors are basing their decisions on tweets.

Stock prices boomed Monday when President Donald Trump tweeted that China had agreed to “reduce and remove tariffs” on imported American cars. But then stocks tanked yesterday when it turned out there was no agreement.

How you can be in a face-to-face meeting and not know that what you agreed to remains a mystery? But it called for a clarification tweet.

“Investors lost confidence after President Trump’s tweet calling himself a ‘Tarrif man,'” said CBS reporters Jill Schlesinger.

Yep, a “Tariff Man.”

….I am a Tariff Man. When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so. It will always be the best way to max out our economic power. We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2018

And the stampede began. In a matter of hours tech stocks were in the soup.  Amazon lost $51 billion. Apple stock lost $39 billion. Netflix investors were down $6.5 billion.

I’m sure there were other factors besides just the tweet. Maybe Neflix’s real problem was its decision to pay $100 million for the rights to another year of Friends re-runs.

I mean, the show was good, but come on.

In any case, stock brokers immediately started reassuring customers that the economy remains solid, and if you up and sell, you might miss the next boom.

And they have a point. Tomorrow Trump might tweet that he is now “Free-Market Man.”

Of course he might also announce he’s Aquaman, who knows? Although, if he can make sea level drop, that would be a good thing.

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