Peter Tuchman, known as the “Einstein of Wall Street” because of his hair and his knowledge, is one of the best-known traders on the New York Stock Exchange. As markets grappled with the fallout of President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement, he warned there was “blood on the streets” of the exchange.
During a CNN appearance, as markets went into a free fall, Tuchman outlined the sense of fear and anxiety among traders as the effects of Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement cintinued to sink in.He acknowledged that his predictions of what Trump would do were way off the mark.
The last time the mood had been so grim on the trading floor had been “the beginning days of Covid, where you just had a sort of darkness around the room, and today was clearly that,” he recalled.
Tuchman recounted how he encountered Jim Cramer backstage and was reminded of the CNBC host’s 2007 “they know nothing” rant in which he lambasted the Federal Reserve for not seeing the signs of the coming financial crisis.
“I was reminded [of Cramer’s rant] and thought I was going to come out here and do the exact same thing,” said Tuchman. “Because it’s unbelievable. They know nothing. And the formula they used for these numbers to measure the trade deficit, it’s like ‘apples, oranges, a couple of cashews, divided by ten, times four’ — none of it makes any sense.”
Tuchman said that until just before Trump’s tariff announcement, he thought that the president would “lay it all out,” and that there would be a “big reveal” that would calm the markets. The markets have faced uncertainty for several weeks regarding Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff plans.
“I could not have been more wrong,” he said. “Today’s sell-off was not even a capitulation, it was a devastating day on the market, blood on the streets in my opinion.”
Cramer appeared on CNN after Tuchman, saying: “I feel like a sucker tonight because I am not a free trader and I do not believe in free trade. And I was just as tough, if not tougher, than his people.”
But they “screwed it up and … they did it in a totally ill-advised way,” he added. “And I was very let down as someone who really, truly believes that free trade is awful for the American working person. This is what they came up with? Jeez, come on! Have some gumption. Have some math.”