Stocks Surge on Trump’s Claim of Deal on Greenland: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — Speculative spirits were restored on Wall Street, fueled by hopes for a solution in Donald Trump’s ambitions for Greenland that would avoid tariffs. Stocks and bonds climbed and gold’s rally cooled as the president claimed a framework of a deal with NATO.

Following a cross-asset slide dubbed by some as a revival of the “Sell America” trade, the S&P 500 added 1.2% in its biggest advance since November. All of its major industries rose, with the gauge back in the green for 2026. Energy shares led gains, hitting all-time highs. Small caps beat the US equity benchmark for a 13th straight session. Big tech also jumped.

From US stocks to Treasuries, corporate bonds to emerging markets, exchange-traded funds tracking those major assets saw the strongest pan-market rally since August.

Trump’s decision marks a stark reversal for a president who has repeatedly attempted to coerce Europe over Greenland. It came after a meeting with North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Still, Trump did not detail the parameters of the “framework” and it was unclear what the agreement entails. Earlier Wednesday, the president ruled out the use of military force in his quest for Greenland.

“Due to the uproar about the US asserting itself and demanding that it buys Greenland from Denmark, Davos has become an emergency summit,” said Louis Navellier at Navellier & Associates. “Trump is a bull in a China shop, so it will be interesting to see how all the European allies react.”

Among the myriad of headlines from Davos, the veteran strategist said he personally liked that Trump said that the stock market would double after the rout on Tuesday in the wake of the Greenland chatter.

Meantime, US Supreme Court justices suggested they are wary of Trump’s effort to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over unproven mortgage-fraud allegations, saying the move could upend the Fed’s independence and rattle markets.

More than 400 shares in the S&P 500 rose. The yield on 10-year Treasuries slid four basis points to 4.25%. A $13 billion auction of 20-year bonds drew good demand. The dollar was little changed.

“Sharp turn Wednesday in favor of risk with Trump’s Greenland ‘TACO’ reversal and a Supreme Court hearing on the Trump/Cook case that seemed to go well for the Fed governor and the Fed as an institution – not to mention an easing of the Japanese yield surge,” said Krishna Guha at Evercore. “None of these issues go away, however, and all three will be with us for some time.”

The markets breathed a sigh of relief during Trump’s speech marathon, where the US President ruled out the use of military to acquire Greenland, noted Fawad Razaqzada at Forex.com.

“But does this mean it is risk back on, and markets will kick on from here after the recent falls? Well, time will tell,” he said.

Trump has ruled out the use of force to acquire this island, but his push for immediate negotiations over ownership will likely maintain the pressure around this sensitive topic, according to James McCann at Edward Jones.

“We will be watching carefully for further signals from the president and European counterparts over coming days, which could provide more clarity on how this dispute might be resolved in a way that secures US defense concerns and protects local sovereignty,” McCann said.

JPMorgan Asset Management’s Bob Michele said the recent selloff in markets was a message to the Trump administration to take action to restore calm as officials did after Liberation Day tariffs rattled investors last year.

“Things are a bit chaotic and the markets do feel a bit panicked,” he said. “The market had a fit in April and then they backed off of a lot of things and then calm ensued. We need to hear some of the same kinds of things.”

Tuesday served as a reminder that investors remain emotional about geopolitical and tariff headlines, and that record allocations to equities leaves little margin for error, according to Mark Hackett at Nationwide.

“Following the strong run to record highs, it is not unusual or unhealthy to see a period of consolidation,” he said. “As skepticism arises, investors are more reactive, and companies are unable to buy back shares due to earnings blackout periods. The weakness has been temporary, however, with the rally continuing shortly after earnings season.”

The tariff threats surrounding Greenland show that the stock market, while resilient, is still headline-sensitive, and there will be plenty of headlines in the coming weeks, whether they are from Washington, earnings, economic data or the Fed, noted David Laut at Kerux Financial.

“We remind investors that tariff headlines can cause short-term volatility, but that applies in both directions,” Laut added. “The tariff threats can easily be unwound and reversed, sparking upside market volatility.”

Laut also said that the tariff-driven stock market declines present opportunities for investors who are looking for an attractive entry point to put new money to work. He bets value stocks, in sectors like financials, materials and energy, are the better buys right now given elevated valuations in tech stocks.

Provided Europe does not activate its anti-coercion tool or a large-scale divestment of US assets, a correction on the scale of the post-Liberation Day pullback appears unlikely, according to Seema Shah at Principal Asset Management.

“However, this episode may accelerate an emerging structural shift: global investors have shown greater appetite to diversify away from US concentration risks, especially in AI leadership, and renewed geopolitical unpredictability strengthens this incentive,” she said. “Recent dollar softness is consistent with this gradual global portfolio rebalancing.”

For all the turmoil rattling markets, the foundation for more gains looks solid, several Wall Street strategists say. Their reasoning generally rests on the idea that risk assets have long looked past prior bouts of geopolitical unrest, except when the disorder causes oil prices to spike.

“Many investors worry it could rattle equity markets. We are less convinced,” Alastair Pinder at HSBC Holdings Plc, wrote in a Jan. 20 note. The 36 major geopolitical events since 1940 saw US stocks rise 60% of the time in the three months that followed, he said.

“These episodes create chaos in the short term, but they tend to cool over time,” said Kenny Polcari at SlateStone Wealth. “None of this changes the trajectory of the US economy or the expectations for a strong 2026. Volatility is your friend, and weakness should be used to build positions in quality leaders that are getting unnecessarily whacked by the headlines.”

Polcari also cites the fact that we’re in the middle of what is expected to be a strong earnings season.

While another reason to be bullish comes indeed from prospects of strong corporate profits, unimpressed investors are delivering the worst share-price reactions on record as the outlook for 2026 turns murky.

Data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence show about 81% of S&P 500 firms have beaten fourth-quarter profit expectations so far. However, their shares have trailed the benchmark by an average of 1.1 percentage points — the worst relative performance across data going back to 2017.

Corporate Highlights:

Netflix Inc. slumped after giving a disappointing forecast for earnings in the months ahead as it spends more on programming and works to close its $82.7 billion deal with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. European Union regulators are poised to review competing bids for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. at the same time — thrusting Netflix Inc. and Paramount Skydance Corp. into a rare head-to-head antitrust battle. Apple Inc. plans to revamp Siri later this year by turning the digital assistant into the company’s first artificial intelligence chatbot, thrusting the iPhone maker into a generative AI race dominated by OpenAI and Google. United Airlines Holdings Inc. warned that geopolitical tensions risk disrupting what’s been “a pretty hot start to the year.” Johnson & Johnson lost a key battle to block experts linking the company’s withdrawn baby powder products to cancer from testifying in court, sending shares lower. Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the largest investor in Kraft Heinz Co., may soon sell some or all of its stake in the cheese and ketchup maker, just months after the firm announced plans to split into two companies. UnitedHealth Group Inc. plans to give profits from its Affordable Care Act plans back to customers in 2026 as Congress weighs extending tax credits for those plans, the company’s top executive said in prepared testimony. As artificial intelligence threatens to upend job markets in countries around the world, Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang brushed off longer term concerns and made the case that skilled vocational workers are seeing increasing demand now. One of OpenAI’s top executives defended the company’s addition of ads to its popular chatbot ChatGPT as a way to democratize access to artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence startup SambaNova Systems Inc. is considering raising up to $500 million after talks to sell to Intel Corp. stalled, according to people familiar with the matter. Halliburton Co. is ready to quickly restart operations in Venezuela once it obtains US government approval and some sort of payment protections, said Chief Executive Officer Jeff Miller. Charles Schwab Corp. reported a surge in average daily trading volume in the fourth quarter as retail investors sought to take advantage of the end of a strong year for the stock market. Ally Financial Inc. reported higher-than-anticipated provisions for credit losses in the fourth quarter to prepare for the potential of soured loans. Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin is building a satellite communication network to deliver connectivity to data centers, governments and businesses, the company said on Wednesday. TikTok will be able to continue operating its subsidiary in Canada for now, after a previous order for it to wind down its operations in the country was shelved by a judge. Deutsche Boerse AG agreed to acquire European fund distribution platform Allfunds Group Plc for about €5.3 billion ($6.2 billion) in cash and stock. Ryanair Holdings Plc’s chief executive officer said his online sparring with Elon Musk this past week has been good for business. Ubisoft Entertainment SA is canceling game projects, shutting down studios and cutting its guidance as the Assassin’s Creed maker restructures its business into five units. L’Occitane Groupe, the skincare retailer that was taken private by its billionaire owner Reinold Geiger in 2024, is weighing an initial public offering in the US as soon as this year, people with knowledge of the matter said. Burberry’s sales advanced over the key holiday period as shoppers snapped up the British brand’s tartan scarves and trench coats, especially in China, bolstering hopes of a luxury rebound. Renault SA plans to reintegrate its Ampere electric vehicle and software operations as Chief Executive Officer Francois Provost reverses a strategy that sputtered due to lower-than-expected EV demand. Volvo Car AB, unveiling its first fully electric mid-size SUV, will stick to plans to manufacture the vehicle in Sweden for global shipments, even as the threat of further US tariffs mounts. Qiagen NV, the European molecular testing firm, is weighing strategic options including a potential sale amid fresh takeover interest, people with knowledge of the matter said. Sony Group Corp. introduced its latest pair of consumer earbuds, with a clip-on design that resembles recent efforts from Bose Corp., Lenovo Group Ltd.’s Motorola unit and Huawei Technologies Co. Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. is planning to launch a generic version of Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic in March after the drug’s patent expiry, becoming one of the first firms to capture the gold rush for the therapy in the South Asian country. What Bloomberg Strategists say…

“Traders are taking Trump’s comments that he doesn’t plan to use force to acquire Greenland as a signal that tensions between the allies won’t escalate — but that may be premature. Trump’s adversarial tone and the straining relationships between the two regions and beyond indicate that the disagreements are far from over.”

—Tatiana Darie, Macro Strategist, Markets Live. For the full analysis, click here.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

The S&P 500 rose 1.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.4% The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2% The MSCI World Index rose 0.7% Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 1.1% The Russell 2000 Index rose 2% Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro fell 0.3% to $1.1687 The British pound was little changed at $1.3426 The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 158.38 per dollar Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin rose 0.7% to $89,965.89 Ether rose 1.1% to $3,021.55 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 4.25% Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.88% Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.46% The yield on 2-year Treasuries was little changed at 3.59% The yield on 30-year Treasuries declined five basis points to 4.87% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $60.71 a barrel Spot gold rose 1.2% to $4,819.43 an ounce –With assistance from Lu Wang.

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