An unfounded claim that President Donald Trump was considering pausing the implementation of sizable tariffs briefly sent U.S. stocks skyrocketing on Monday, an indication of just how volatile the current economic situation has become.

Just after 10:10 a.m., a headline was posted by several well-followed finance-focused accounts on X that said White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett had indicated that Trump was considering a 90-day pause — China excluded — on his sweeping tariffs plan.

Though unverified, the headline was instantly digested by investors — many of whom operate through algorithmic software that can parse information for buy or sell signals — and sent stocks soaring, reversing an earlier massive sell-off.

The unfounded headline got an extra boost when it was mentioned at about 10:14 a.m. ET on CNBC in an effort to explain the market’s moves (with one anchor noting the source of the claim was unclear) and then included the headline in an on-air graphic. The move resulted in trillions in gains in stock-market value in a matter of minutes.

Yet it soon became clear that no one could trace the origins of the alleged news. Hassett appeared earlier Monday on Fox News but did not mention a 90-day pause — though he was asked about one.

The White House later said on X that the claim was false, and one of the administration’s accounts reposted Hassett’s Fox News appearance to clarify that no such pause had been floated.

An attempt to create a timeline of Monday morning’s events points to the errant statement first spreading on X, then making its way to CNBC and Reuters. A CNBC spokesperson said: “As we were chasing the news of the market moves in real-time, we aired unconfirmed information in a banner. Our reporters quickly made a correction on air.” (CNBC and NBC News share a parent company, NBCUniversal.)

A Reuters spokesperson said in an email: "Reuters, drawing from a headline on CNBC, published a story on April 7 saying White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett had said that President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day tariff pause on all countries except China. The White House denied the report. Reuters has withdrawn the incorrect report and regrets its error."

A search of X shows that the first post mentioning Hassett and the pause came at 10:11 a.m. appears to have come from the account @yourfavorito, a finance-focused account with relatively few followers that regularly posts headlines about daily business developments. Identical or near-identical language was later posted by larger accounts, including some that are well followed in the finance world. Some of those posts have since been deleted.