NEW YORK, Jan 21, 2026, 14:29 EST
U.S. stocks recovered on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said he would not use force to acquire Greenland, easing a burst of trade-war worry that hit Wall Street a day earlier.
In late morning trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 440.45 points, or 0.91%, while the S&P 500 added 1% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.16%.
The CBOE Volatility Index, an options-based gauge of expected swings in the S&P 500, slid to 17.59. (Reuters)
Markets have been jumping on every shift in the Greenland dispute because it has come with tariff threats — import taxes — aimed at European allies.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 2.06% and the Dow lost 1.76% after Trump said he would slap 10% tariffs from Feb. 1 on goods from eight countries, rising to 25% by June unless they backed a deal for Greenland. (Reuters)
Outside the U.S., shares and bonds tried to steady, but the mood stayed brittle after a bruising selloff that revived talk of a “Sell America” trade, shorthand for foreign investors dumping U.S. assets.
“The market bounced when he said we wouldn’t use force,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide. Brian Jacobsen at Annex Wealth Management said it mattered as much what Trump did not repeat — tariffs — as what he did say.
The MSCI All-World index rose 0.61% as benchmark U.S. 10-year yields eased to about 4.28% and the VIX slipped back below 20. (Reuters)
Speaking to world leaders in Davos, Trump pushed again for Greenland, a Danish territory, but said: “I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”
He called for “immediate negotiations” and warned there would be consequences if Denmark refused, while Denmark’s foreign minister said the pledge on force was positive but did not end the problem. (Reuters)
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed down 0.4% at 8,782 points, with rate-sensitive banks down 1.5% in Sydney as investors watched the slide on Wall Street.
Miners helped limit the loss as gold surged, with spot gold around $4,870 an ounce in late trading. (ABC)
Back in New York by early afternoon, the Dow was up 0.6%, the S&P 500 0.5% and the Nasdaq 0.2%, after all three had been up more than 1% earlier.
Gold futures touched a fresh high near $4,900 before easing, and the 10-year Treasury yield slipped to about 4.27% from Tuesday’s close of 4.30%. (Investopedia)
Netflix shares fell nearly 4% as co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters defended the company’s roughly $83 billion push for Warner Bros Discovery assets and a pause in share buybacks to help fund it.
“When we got into the hood, there were several things we saw that were just really exciting,” Peters told investors. (Reuters)
Netflix moved this week to an all-cash offer for Warner’s studio and streaming assets, sticking with an $82.7 billion price and offering $27.75 a share in cash, a regulatory filing showed.
“Our revised all-cash agreement will enable an expedited timeline to a stockholder vote,” Sarandos said, as the company tries to fend off Paramount Skydance. (Reuters)
But the calm could prove brief. Trump has not withdrawn the tariff threat, and investors have watched bonds and currencies swing on politics as much as on data.
A harder line from Europe, fresh trouble in the bond market or regulatory pushback on the mega media deal could put volatility back on the front page.
For now, traders are juggling geopolitics and earnings season. The swings are coming fast, sometimes within minutes of a headline.
