A legislator stated on Wednesday that Wall Street's primary regulators ought to examine irregular trading in oil and equity futures markets just before former President Donald Trump delayed military actions against Iran last month.
"The remarkable speed, volume, and pattern of the trades appear suspicious," said Representative Ritchie Torres in an interview following his correspondence to the leaders of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "The evidence is so conspicuous that neither the SEC nor the CFTC can overlook it."
The Democratic representative from New York urged the agencies to initiate a formal probe into trading within oil, energy, and equity futures markets in the moments preceding Trump's March 23 social media announcement and to secure trading records for accounts linked to these transactions.
The SEC chose not to comment on the letter. The CFTC did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment.
According to a Bloomberg report, futures worth billions of dollars were traded shortly before Trump declared he would postpone strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. The president had previously warned of an attack within 48 hours if Iran did not open the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passage for oil tankers.
Exchange data aggregated by Bloomberg indicated that financial contracts equivalent to at least 6 million barrels of Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude were sold within a two-minute window starting at 6:49 a.m. New York time that day. The average volume for the same period over the preceding five trading days was approximately 700,000 barrels. Trump's post on Truth Social was made at around 7:05 a.m. that morning.
In late March, CFTC Enforcement Director David Miller mentioned that the regulator was monitoring trading in the oil futures market for unusual patterns but stated he could not comment on any potential investigations by the agency.