US president Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs unveiled on April 2 have unleashed a perfect financial storm. Wall Street dived 9 percent in two days as world markets shook, oil prices cratered and recession odds spiked.

It was amazing that Hong Kong stocks resisted the fall at first, steady at 22,869 points last week.

Beijing waited until Friday to announce its 34-percent tariff counterpunch. Fears over an escalating tariff war between the US and China intensified sharply, sending the Hang Seng Index to fall more than 3,000 points - over 13 percent - amid a high volume of HK$620.9 billion yesterday.

A US tariff blitz met with China's retaliation promised a perfect storm.

The reciprocal tariffs' scale caught investors off-guard as it was broader and higher than expected. Critics in the US and overseas lined up to accuse Trump of market manipulation deliberately crashing the market to profit himself and allies.

Trump's crypto haul via $TRUMP, $MELANIA and a 60-percent stake in the World Liberty Financial - a project offering a platform for cryptocurrency-based borrowing and lending - feeds the suspicion.

If stocks sink and bitcoin soars, this would swell the couple's wallets.

Trump's follower, Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville's dumping of 12 stock holdings post-election, according to filings cited in news reports, also adds fuel.

Hedge funds, too, likely raked in colossal amount by shorting the chaotic situation, despite a lack of hard figures at the moment.

But Goldman Sachs did note in early March that hedge funds had started unwinding long positions to shift to defensive or profit-taking tactics when the Wall Street was at record highs.

Did Trump and his men play naughty with the system?

Probably, since before spectators is a compelling narrative of a president pulling strings for ulterior gains. The only question is that the evidence seems to be more smoke than fire.

Bitcoin fell along, having plunged over 9 percent since the announcement, from US$82,415 on April 3 to US$77,157 yesterday morning.

Tuberville, a Trump supporter but remote from the president's inner circle, sold the stocks within days of Trump's November win, that was four and a half months before the tariffs announcement. Tuberville and hedge fund wins seem to reflect clever bets on uncertainty rather than insider-trading whispers.

Renowned investor Warren Buffett predicted a crash when the Wall Street was still feverish.

Acting ahead of curve, the Oracle of Omaha slashed stock holdings, including some of his favorites, for cash, elevating Berkshire Hathaway's cash hoard to a record US$325 billion as of late 2024, up from US$168 billion at the end of 2023.

In hindsight, Buffett demonstrated a knowledge of events prior to occurrence.

If investors had heeded Buffet's warnings and hoarded cash similarly at a time the Wall Street was insanely high and seriously taken Trump's tariffs threat repeated during the campaign, they would have avoided the crash like Buffett.

The markets have imploded.

Still, the optics sting. The Trumps' bet on crypto currencies clashes with a president's duty to prioritize the public. That Trump ignored economists' warnings about inflation and growth risks is suggestive of his excessive pride.

Markets need just a spark to crash and Trump lit it.

There are suspicions that Donald Trump deliberately crashed the markets. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG

Trump may live to regret his tariffic blunder, despite any gain from pain