Rumours are highly influential in determining buying and selling patterns on financial markets. Professional investors and speculators rely primarily on rumours in anticipation of hard facts. For them perceptions are more important than reality. Professional traders, communicating instantaneously around the world, are central to the spread of rumours vital to the stability of the global financial system. They must act on rumours or lose their competitive advantage.
In 1996 in Colombia, a panic was caused by a Christian fundamentalist rumour that the Antichrist was arriving and would mark or remove any unbaptized children.
The Internet has become the prime medium for the circulation of rumours on every conceivable subject, notably with regard to conspiracy theories.