Dow futures slumped 200 points early this morning after China denied a call had taken place with Trump's team, which as pointed out earlier, juiced US equity futures 700 Dow points off overnight lows.

Trump and Mnuchin quickly sprang into action to try to talk the market back up:

Reporter: "Did you mean to say that there was also a call last night [with China] or was there not actually a call?"

Steve Mnuchin: "There were discussions that went back and forth, and let's just leave it at that."

Trump [interrupting]: "Last night. And before last night."

But one glimpse at Mnuchin's face (the worst poker player ever) tells you all you need to know about what really happened:

Sure enough, algos which didn't care if Trump was lying and simply chalked the confusion up to another case of "He said, Xi said", immediately kneejerked stocks higher: