Stock market today: Live updates
Futures data last pointed to a drop of 718 points for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The S&P 500 is poised to shed 1.6%, while the implied open for the Nasdaq was last pointing to a loss of 1.8%.
Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Saturday that eight NATO members’ U.S. imports will face escalating tariffs “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.” The tariffs will start at 10% on Feb. 1 and rise to 25% on June 1, Trump said.
On Tuesday, Trump threatened to slap 200% tariffs on French wines and champagne, amid reports that the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is unwilling to join his so-called Board of Peace for Gaza. Trump also hit out at the U.K., labeling the British government’s plan to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands — one of which is the site of a U.K.-U.S. military base — to Mauritius as an “act of great stupidity.” He said the move was “another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired.”
The Trump administration previously backed the U.K.’s deal with Mauritius.
European leaders have described Trump’s fresh tariff threats as “unacceptable,” and are reportedly considering countermeasures — with France said to be pushing for the European Union to use its strongest economic counter-threat, known as the “Anti-Coercion Instrument.” Shares of European carmakers and luxury goods companies dropped on Monday, while some of the continent’s defense stocks rallied.
Trump, who is due to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, said he had agreed to speak with European leaders at the conference to discuss his Greenland ambitions.
Back in the U.S., Monday night marked the first time investors were able to fully react to the trade escalation, as markets were closed for the Martin Luther King holiday.
“With the US off yesterday the implications of the tariff threats over Greenland had yet to fully percolate through financial markets,” Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said in a Tuesday morning note. “Markets have reacted but there’s clearly room for bigger moves if the rhetoric increases further … Yesterday [Trump] declined to rule out the use of force to take Greenland, saying “No comment” when asked by NBC News in an interview. That’s driven growing fears about some kind of retaliatory trade escalation from Europe, with increasingly strong comments from several officials.”
Jeff Kilburg, CEO of KKM Financial, thinks investors should buy the dip if equities fall due to tariff fears, however. “Markets initial reaction to potential tariffs [is] presenting a buying opportunity as focus will shift away from Davos and back to Q4 earnings season mid week.”
The administration’s levies are also under scrutiny as Wall Street awaits a major court decision.
The Supreme Court could rule as soon as next week on whether to strike down the Trump tariffs, which the president has imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that he believes it’s “very unlikely that the Supreme Court will overrule a president’s signature economic policy.”
“In general, we do expect that much policy uncertainty, particularly as related to tariffs, should be behind us. Still, we need to expect that policy related volatility, such as catching headlines over the weekend, will persist,” Scott Chronert, head of U.S. equity strategy at Citi, wrote to clients.
Civil unrest in Iran also has global investors on edge. An Iranian official in the region said on Sunday that at least 5,000 people have been killed in nationwide protests, which began on Dec. 28 over economic hardship and have since grown into widespread calls for the end of clerical rule.
Major U.S. averages are coming off of a losing week.
The S&P 500 shed 0.4%, while the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3% on the week. The Nasdaq Composite recorded a loss of 0.7%, even though chipmaking stocks tied to the artificial intelligence trade got a brief lift on Thursday after Taiwan Semiconductor’s blowout fourth-quarter report.
This week, quarterly financial results are expected from a range of companies, including Netflix, Charles Schwab, Johnson & Johnson and Intel. Guidance from companies this year is crucial to sustain bullish sentiment for U.S. stocks. The S&P 500 is already expected to post earnings growth of 12% to 15%.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed reporting.
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