[pintglass]

> All it would take is for one major player to take a view on what was going to happen without hearing the fed data in an attempt to beat the market.

But why would they wait then? "Guessing" or working with known public information is perfectly legal. They should act upon that data immediately. A leak is much more likely, as they would be afraid of an investigation when they "guessed right". They were almost certainly trying to trade as if there were no leak, but they forgot to add the slight delay.