Subtlety has never been Wall Street’s strong suit, and when a dose of sarcasm crept into the high-stakes discourse Monday afternoon around tensions between Russia and Ukraine, it briefly proved more than traders could process.
Confusion reigned when media accounts of what appears to have been a tongue-in-cheek quip by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, deriding assumptions about Russia’s military intent, ignited a brief bout of ill-advised selling.
"It’s been a crazy day after a crazy week,” said Michael Purves, founder of Tallbacken Capital Advisors. "We are dealing with very twitchy markets. Geopolitical tensions come with lots of dramatic headlines.”