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postUS stock futures faltered on Wednesday, eyeing a return to the steepest selloff in months as Wall Street waited for President Trump’s speech at Davos for insight into the Greenland crisis.
Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) edged down aroung 0.2%. Meanwhile, S&P 500 futures (ES=F) hovered just below the flat line, coming off a bruising Tuesday session that saw investors rush for the exits against a backdrop of global insecurity.
Markets are weighing Trump comments that appeared to strike a less aggressive tone on Greenland, as he said a deal will be reached “where NATO will be very happy.” He is expected to hold meetings with other countries in Davos over the EU-US spat.
But Trump also persisted with his push for control of Greenland, appearing confident the US will prevail as he left for the World Economic Forum. That 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.
Technical issues with Trump’s aircraft are likely to delay his key address at Davos, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it could be pushed back as much as three hours, per Bloomberg.
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 in premarket trading 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.
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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.”
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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:
seeing the “largest infrastructure build out in human history.” There is “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.
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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:
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