Stocks are getting crushed. Near 2:30 p.m. EST, the Dow was down more than 400 points and oil broke to a new 12-year low around $26.07 a barrel.
And then: BOOM! Near 2:50 p.m. EST, the Dow was down just 220, the S&P 500 was off 18 points, and the Nasdaq was down 13.
Screen Shot 2016 02 11 at 2.52.25 PMGoogle Finance
And it looks like it all comes from this tweet from Wall Street Journal OPEC correspondent Summer Said:
Right now, financial markets are all about oil prices. And any sign that OPEC — the 13-state cartel led by Saudi Arabia that has been a big part of flooding the market with oil — is going to pull back production to balance the market has the chance to make everything go nuts.
And so here we are.