Democratic senators press for probe into Trump’s prerelease jobs tweet
Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Michael Bennet wrote letters to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the White House Council of Economic Advisers expressing concern over President Donald Trump’s comments on market-moving economic data prior to their public release. Trump tweeted before the jobs report — after being briefed on them — that he was looking forward to the numbers, which showed the unemployment rate at a 18-year low. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, the dollar and stock futures all rose after Trump’s tweet but before the release of the jobs data. The senators want the SEC and CFTC to investigate whether anyone was able to use the information and whether BLS has controls to keep data confidential. The senators also say the CEA needs to take additional steps so that no one is taking advantage of prerelease data again.