00:00Well, this is a classic graph that any commodities trader will understand.
00:05Covell walked us through the morning of March 23rd.
00:09Fighting had been raging for three-plus weeks, and it was a slow trading day in oil futures.
00:14If you see the chart, you'll see that no one is trading during that time period.
00:18Why would you trade at that time?
00:19It doesn't make a lot of sense unless you have a real reason.
00:22Then, according to data the financial firm LSEG provided us,
00:26suddenly at 6.50 a.m., more than $800 million was staked on the chance of oil prices dropping.
00:33Fifteen minutes later, President Trump posted on TrueSocial that the White House in Iran had, quote,
00:39very good and productive conversations about ending hostilities.
00:44The news sent the price of oil plummeting more than 10 percent.
00:47What kind of profit is that resulting in?
00:49We're talking tens of millions could be $80 million.
00:52You see this graph and you think insider trading.
00:55That's a natural conclusion to draw.
00:58I can't know it without knowing what happened, but it's a natural conclusion to draw.
01:02Covell is not alone in finding this highly dubious.
01:0660 Minutes has learned federal investigators are probing these oil market trades as well.
01:11What are the odds the government knows the identity of whoever executed that?
01:15If they go to the exchanges, they can know them.
01:17This could have been someone inside the U.S.
01:19This could have been someone from a foreign country.
01:22This could have been an enemy.
01:23Identifying who it was would be the secret to figuring out whether it was insider trading or not.
