US President Donald Trump walks on the South Garden of the White Home after arriving on Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Sunday, April 12, 2026. Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV for his criticisms of the US-Israeli warfare on Iran, calling the chief of the Catholic Church “WEAK on crime.” Photographer: Bonnie Money/UPI/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
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U.S. derivatives regulators are analyzing a handful of bizarre oil futures trades that befell minutes earlier than a shock announcement by President Donald Trump signaling a pause in assaults on Iran, in response to Bloomberg Information.
The investigation is being spearheaded by the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, which is scrutinizing exercise on buying and selling venues run by CME Group and Intercontinental Alternate, Bloomberg reported, citing folks acquainted with the matter. Each exchanges have been requested to show over pertinent information.
Regulators are zeroing in on at the very least two cases over a roughly two-week interval when buying and selling volumes jumped sharply simply forward of key bulletins. The data sought contains so-called Tag 50 identifiers, which can be utilized to find out who was behind the trades, the folks stated.
The CFTC and ICE declined to remark.
CME did not particularly touch upon the weird trades tied to Trump’s announcement, however the trade stated that any investigation must also embrace new platforms equivalent to prediction markets.
“Nothing is extra necessary than market integrity,” a spokesperson at CME informed CNBC. “We vigorously surveil our markets and work carefully with the CFTC to supervise buying and selling exercise. Importantly, any overview of market conduct should embrace all venues, together with prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi that record associated merchandise with little to no visibility.”
CNBC beforehand reported on the suspicious exercise on March 23 when S&P 500 e-mini futures and West Texas Intermediate Could crude futures noticed a sudden and remoted surge in quantity in in any other case muted premarket buying and selling.
About quarter-hour later, Trump stated on Reality Social that the U.S. and Iran had held talks and that he was halting deliberate strikes on Iranian energy crops and power infrastructure. The announcement triggered a direct response throughout markets, with S&P 500 futures leaping greater than 2.5% forward of the open, and WTI crude oil futures tumbling almost 6%.
The sudden, simultaneous spikes in quantity in inventory index and crude futures raised eyebrows amongst merchants, significantly as they got here with none clear information or set off on the time.
Final week, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., known as on the CFTC to open investigations into such uncommon trades, elevating the query of whether or not there was recurring misappropriation of fabric nonpublic authorities info.
— Click on right here to learn the unique Bloomberg Information story.
