Costcogate
You’ve heard of Pizzagate, Qanon, fake birds, and fake spambots on Twitter but today marks a historic event as a fintwit icon from Gary Indiana was able to fool the House Of Republicans (@HouseGOP).
Early Wednesday morning, retail giant Target reported they missed their earnings expectations, sending the stock down 25%. A similar event unfolded earlier in the week when Walmart experienced the same fate. Alongside these retail giants, other consumer spending-driven stocks have seen turbulence as the market begins to unwind. Shares of KO, K, PEP, KHC, and KDP saw large declines during today’s session. We cannot determine for sure if Costco’s 10% decline is in relation to the stocks listed above or if it is from a leaked statement that the company was finally raising the prices of their cheap food court items.
Before the market opened, the Twitter account @JohnWRichKid had changed its profile photo and name to portray the popular news outlet “Breaking 911” on Twitter. Following the disguise, they proceeded to tweet out a statement at about 6:15 AM PST that “COSTCO ANNOUNCES PLANS TO RAISE FOOD COURT HOT-DOG PRICES BY $1 DUE TO INFLATION”. Uninformed Twitter users took to their keyboards and let out their frustration about the price hike. Shortly after, more reputable accounts (Verified accounts) quote tweeted the Costco “news” causing a ripple effect across the bluebird application. Accounts @FXHedgers, @darrenrovell, and even the House of Republicans fell victim to the misinformation. Reactions were quite comedic as users stated that America’s stablecoin, Costco hotdogs, had been “depegged”. Even Dogecoin creator Shibetoshi Nakamoto was shocked. As of now, Wall Skreet has been unable to receive a comment from John W Rich Kid (Wendy’s Fry Cook) but you can be assured that if we do, this article will be updated.
There are a few takeaways from this event. The first is that social media has the power to move both markets and the world. Even 8 hours after the event has occurred, there are still people finding out about the “price hike” and it is possible that once it hits Instagram, it’ll spread even faster and further. The second is people’s complacency and their ability to depict fact from fiction. This isn’t to discredit John’s actions because it is hilarious, but in a different scenario, where the information involves a more serious topic, communities can and will be led astray. All in all, the Fintwit community isn’t one to reckon with and its influence is strong. A final thought on the matter is that if someone were to correlate the drop in Costco to this fake headline, it would represent the sensitivity of the current market as it would be looking for any excuse to dump shares. Thanks for reading!
Below is a video of the events.