One of Wall Street’s best-known traders said there was “blood on the streets” at the New York Stock Exchange as the markets dealt with the worst day since COVID amid President Trump’s trade war.
Peter Tuchman, known as the ‘Einstein of Wall Street’ due to his distinctive hairstyle, joined CNN’s Erin Burnett to discuss the mood on the floor after the Trump administration’s “Liberation Day” tariffs sent markets into freefall.
Tuchman described a pervading sense of dread amongst traders as the true scope of the tariffs began to be felt and admitted that his initial predictions about what the president would do were utterly wrong.
“In an odd way, we are in a moment of history,” said Burnett as she asked Tuchman his thoughts on the day’s trade.
“No doubt,” he responded, adding that the last time the mood on the trading floor had been so low was “probably the beginning days of COVID, where you just had a sort of darkness around the room, and today was clearly that.”
Tuchman said he ran into Jim Cramer backstage and was reminded of the Mad Money host’s infamous “they know nothing” rant from 2007, in which he blasted the federal reserve for ignoring the upcoming signs of the forthcoming financial crisis.
“I was reminded [of Cramer’s rant] and thought I was going to come out here and do the exact same thing,” Tuchman said. “Because it’s unbelievable. They know nothing. And the formula they used for these numbers yesterday to measure the trade deficit, it’s like ‘apples, oranges, a couple of cashews, divided by ten, times four’—none of it makes any sense.”
The trader also admitted he thought until the very last minute that Trump was going to “lay it all out” and that there was going to be a “big reveal” which would calm the markets which have been battered by weeks of uncertainty around the president’s tariff plans.
“I could not have been more wrong,” he confessed. “Today’s sell-off was not even a capitulation, it was a devastating day on the market—blood on the streets in my opinion.”
Cramer, who spoke to Burnett after Tuchman, echoed similar sentiments.
“I feel like a sucker tonight because I am not a free trader and I do not believe in free trade. And I was just as tough, if not tougher, than his people,” he told the host.
“But they screwed it up and they really made—they did it in a totally ill-advised way. And I was very let down as someone who really, truly believes that free trade is awful for the American working person. This is what they came up with? Jeez, come on! Have some gumption. Have some math.”
