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postUS stocks turned higher on Wednesday in the wake of the steepest selloff in months as Wall Street took in President Trump’s speech at Davos for insight into the Greenland crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC), and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) each added around 0.6%, coming off a bruising Tuesday session that saw investors rush for the exits against a backdrop of global insecurity.
Stocks have flip-flopped as Trump has appeared to strike a less aggressive tone on Greenland. During a keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the US president called for “immediate negotiations” to acquire the Danish territory, saying only the US could ensure its security. But he also suggested he wouldn’t use force to gain control of the island.
Nonetheless, Trump has appeared confident he would prevail in his pursuit of Greenland. That has kept trade-war fears and the “Sell America” trade alive, as the EU warned again it was “fully prepared” to hit back against new tariffs.
Also up ahead, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s removal of Lisa Cook as a Federal Reserve governor. The case will test the central bank’s independence and the limits on presidential power to fire Fed board members at will. Concerns about political interference in Fed policy making have haunted markets, as Jerome Powell faces a criminal probe and Bessent publicly builds a case against the Fed chair.
On the corporate front, Netflix (NFLX) stock fell after the streaming giant’s quarterly results showed left investors unimpressed. As the season gets underway, S&P 500 companies’ earnings beats are being met by the worst share-price reactions on record, Bloomberg data shows. Wednesday brings a busy stretch of results, including reports from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Charles Schwab (SCHW), and other mid-sized financial institutions.
LIVE 17 updates
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Intel soars as Wall Street optimism grows ahead of earnings
Intel (INTC) shares rose 10.5% Wednesday to reach their highest level since 2022 as Wall Street analysts’ optimism over the chipmaker’s recent resurgence grew ahead of its quarterly earnings report Thursday.
Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon raised his price target on shares slightly to $36 from $35 Wednesday, noting “positive market dynamics” in the data center server space but noting that its manufacturing business as “quite a ways to go.”
Rasgon’s bumped-up outlook comes a day after Intel stock got two upgrades from HSBC analyst Frank Lee and Seaport’s Jay Goldberg.
Lee changed his rating to Hold from Reduce, citing greater demand for CPUs — central processing units, or more traditional computing chips made by Intel that are used alongside AI chips — from data centers due to agentic AI. Meanwhile, Goldberg upgraded shares to Buy from Neutral, pointing to “strong signals” for Intel’s PC chips and an “improving outlook” for its manufacturing business.
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: ‘Trillions of dollars of AI infrastructure needs to be built’
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Trump doubles down on credit card interest rate cap in Davos speech
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s Davos summit on Wednesday, President Trump doubled down on his push to bring down credit card interest rates.
“I’m asking Congress to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year, and this will help millions of Americans save for a home,” Trump said in his speech.
American credit card issuers currently charge interest rates of “28%, 30%, 31%, 32%,” Trump said, forcing citizens to “[lose] their house” after getting a “little late on their payment.”
Trump claimed that the profit margin for credit card companies “now exceeds 50%.”
Speaking at the Davos summit earlier in the week, JPMorgan Chase CEO (JPM) Jamie Dimon said a 10% interest rate cap would cause “economic disaster” in the US and force banks to cancel credit lines for a large swath of Americans.
The credit card interest rate cap is part of a larger push by Trump for housing affordability. During his comments at Davos, Trump called out his executive order banning “large institutional investors” from buying single-family homes.
“America will not become a nation of renters, we’re not going to do that,” Trump said. “It’s just not fair to the public.”
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Stocks climb at the open
US stocks rose at the market open on Wednesday as President Trump eased his tone on Greenland in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) climbed 0.4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite(^IXIC) rose 0.3%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) also added 0.4%, coming off a bruising Tuesday session that saw investors rush for the exits against a backdrop of boiling geopolitical tensions.
Trump’s administration is seeking to take over the strategically located, mineral-rich Arctic territory of Denmark, risking its alliance with European nations and putting markets on edge.
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Stock futures rebound after Trump says he won’t use ‘excessive strength and force’ in Greenland
Stock futures rebounded after President Trump reiterated his demand for the US to take possession of Greenland but said he wouldn’t use force to acquire the Arctic territory.
“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable, but I won’t do that,” Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Trump said he’s seeking “immediate negotiations” to discuss the US taking full ownership of Greenland, which he described as a “very small ask.” Trump did not repeat his Greenland-related tariff threats that upended markets on Tuesday.
Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 futures turned positive after all three indexes were lower earlier in the morning.
Watch Trump’s address in Davos live.
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Kraft Heinz stock sinks as Berkshire Hathaway considers selling 325 million shares
Kraft Heinz (KHC) may be the target of the first major move by Warren Buffett’s successor, Greg Abel.
On Tuesday, Kraft Heinz said that Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B, BRK-A) may begin selling its 325 million shares in the food company, according to a regulatory filing. Kraft Heinz stock dropped more than 6% on Wednesday morning.
In 2015, Buffett and 3G Capital formed Kraft Heinz by merging the two food brands. But Berkshire hasn’t been quite as happy with the direction the company has taken as of late.
According to the AP, Berkshire took a $3.76 billion writedown on its Kraft-Heinz stake last summer, and Buffett said last fall that he was disappointed in Kraft Heinz’s plan to split the company in two.
On Jan. 1, Buffett stepped down from the conglomerate he founded, and Abel took over the running of Berkshire Hathaway.
Read more here.
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Netflix stock drops after reporting earnings, offering to buy for Warner Bros. in all cash
Netflix stock (NFLX) tumbled more than 5% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the streaming giant beat quarterly earnings estimates but said it would ramp up spending on content and pause its stock buyback program.
Hanging over Netflix’s fourth quarter report was the company’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which has faced bitter competition from Paramount Skydance (PSKY). On Tuesday, Netflix sweetened its deal by offering to buy the company in all cash.
While the deal is likely to face regulatory scruiNetflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos sounded confident in the deal’s approval, saying, “We’ve already made progress towards securing the necessary regulatory approvals.”
The streaming giant reported revenue of $12.05 billion, compared to Wall Street estimates for $11.96 billion, per Bloomberg consensus data.
Earnings per share came in slightly higher than expected at $0.56, versus the Street’s forecast of $0.55.
Read the full earnings breakdown here.
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Premarket trending tickers: Kraft Heinz, United, and Ardagh
Kraft Heinz (KHC) stock fell 5% before the bell on Wednesday after news was released that Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO, Greg Abel, may be considering selling its 325 million shares in the food giant.
United Airlines (UAL) stock rose 3% before the bell on Wednesday after reporting fourth quarter earnings that beat estimates.
Ardagh Metal Packaging stock rose 7% during premarket hours today. Analysts at BMO Capital upgraded the stock to Outperform.
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The bond market is starting to speak up again
Treasury yields continued to sell off on Wednesday morning, pushing yields higher as the Greenland turmoil unnerved markets. The 10-year yield (^TNX) rose 6 basis points to 4.29% in premarket trading, while the 30-year yield (^TYX) rose 8 basis points to 4.92%.
As Yahoo Finance’s Hamza Shaban writes in today’s Morning Brief Takeaway, the US’s geopolitical fight over Greenland highlighted the sensitivity of the bond market:
Read more here from the Morning Brief newsletter.
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S&P 500 profit beats draw worst stock price reaction on record
From Bloomberg:
S&P 500 (^GSPC) companies are handily beating earnings estimates, yet unimpressed investors are delivering the worst share-price reactions on record as the outlook for 2026 turns murky.
While it’s still early days, 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.
Among the stocks that underwhelmed, 3M Co.’s (MMM) shares fell 7% on Tuesday even as the company topped profit estimates, with investors focusing instead on a glum forecast. State Street Corp. (STT) dropped 6.1% as a dimmer net interest income outlook overshadowed better-than-expected quarterly results. Netflix Inc. (NFLX) also declined about 6% in premarket trading Wednesday after a disappointing outlook.
The trend emphasizes just how high the stakes are for corporate earnings this quarter as US stocks kicked off the year scaling record highs. That’s lifted valuations above long-term averages just as analysts have been cutting profit estimates ahead of the reporting season.
“Beating consensus isn’t the hurdle right now. The hurdle is raising the forward path enough to justify already rich valuations in a market that’s still sensitive to rates and policy uncertainty,” said Aneeka Gupta, macroeconomic research director at WisdomTree. “In that environment, a beat without strong guidance becomes a ‘sell-the-news’ event.”
Read more here.
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on job risk from AI
Jensen has talked about this topic many times, but always good to hear his latest thinking.
He is seeing a “boom” in trade jobs, six figure salaries, helping to build out AI infrastructure.
“Everyone should be able to make a great living,” Huang said.
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on demand backdrop
From Jensen’s talk at Davos: He says he’s seeing the “largest infrastructure build out in human history.” There are “trillions of dollars” of infrastructure that needs to be built out.
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang takes the stage at Davos
Jensen sporting a simpler leather jacket than the one he wore at CES. This is Jensen’s first time at Davos for the World Economic Forum.
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Trump doubts Greenland threats will spoil
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China stocks rally on growing tech bets, defying global sell-off
Bloomberg reports:
Chinese stocks defied a pullback in global markets Wednesday, as optimism about Beijing’s stronger push to achieve technology self-reliance eclipsed concerns over rising geopolitical uncertainties.
The Nasdaq-style STAR 50 Index jumped 3.5% to the highest level since October. The broader onshore benchmark CSI 300 (000300.SS) ended the day slightly higher.
… Driving the outperformance of the world’s second-largest stock market was a fresh pledge by Chinese policymakers to accelerate efforts to develop homegrown artificial intelligence and aim for technological breakthroughs. Chinese markets have shown surprising resilience in the past year, with strong exports and policy support for advanced manufacturing and technologies cushioning the blow from tariff tensions.
Read more here.
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Bitcoin drops below $90,000 threshold following equities in risk-off sale
Bloomberg reports:
Read more here.
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Gold reaches new record high with Greenland instability pushing haven higher
Bloomberg reports:
Read more here.
