And the update comes as expected: RUSSIAN INTERIOR MINISTRY DENIES ISSUING ANY STATEMENT ON ASSAD'S HEALTH VIA TWITTER: REUTERS
This account is an hoax created by italian journalist Tomasso De Benedetti
— V. Kolokoltsev (@MiniInterRussia) August 6, 2012 [6]
Moments ago, the apparently fake twitter account of the Russian minister of the interior Vladimir Kolokoltsev [7] (which was created days ago) sent out the three completely unconfirmed and uncorroborated tweets stating that Syria's president Assad "has been killed or injured" which the market, in all its ultra-high speed trading wisdom, took and ran with, not waiting for any actual confirmed news to be released (because obviously Russian official channels have never heard of news wires such as Interfax).
ATTENTION. RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR IN DAMASCUS REPORTS THAT PRESIDENT OF ARAB REPUBLIC OF SYRIA BASHAR AL ASSAD HAS BEEN KILLED OR INJURED.
— V. Kolokoltsev (@MiniInterRussia) August 6, 2012 [8]
ACCORDING TO UNCONFIRMED REPORT FROM RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS IN DAMASCUS PRESIDENT ASSAD HAS BEEN KILLED TODAY.
— V. Kolokoltsev (@MiniInterRussia) August 6, 2012 [9]
RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT CONFIRMS: BASHAR AL ASSAD, PRESIDENT OF SYRIA, HAS BEEN KILLED TODAY IN LATAKYJA WITH HIS WIFE AND TWO PEOPLE.
— V. Kolokoltsev (@MiniInterRussia) August 6, 2012 [10]
End result: WTI soaring by over $1 to just shy of $92, on what very well may be completely fake news, dragging the entire market higher with it.
[11]
And that, in a nutshell, is the "market": fake news about imminent war has become an upside catalyst.