Taco time as equities bounce on Greenland angst

The market is voting that Trump has misplayed his hand on Greenland.

Opposition is lining up in a strong way, including in the United States. It’s not clear if there is any plan here but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told everyone to calm down and that’s being taken as a sign that Trump might not be serious about it.

In addition, the letter to Norway complaining about not winning the Nobel Peace Prize is so cringe-worthy that we can’t possibly extend this timeline another day.

Whatever the reason for the bounce, it’s a nice one off the lows. Thought it’s also a remind that we’re in an era where the government picks the winners and losers as state-backed Intel is the top performer on the S&P 500, up more than 6%.

Other chip names are also among the winners toady, with AMD up 2.75% and Micron up 1.7% but Nvidia is down more than 2%. All the Mag7 names have been struggling this year and are down today, including the formerly-resilient Google, which is off by 1.4%.

The overall market may have also got a bounce from the punt by the Supreme Court on the tariff decision. Given their calendar, it could now be until Feb 20 before they make a decision. That takes down the near-term volatility and may have led to some put buying through earnings season, particularly one where the chip names should see some sensational numbers.

Over in bonds, yields have come down from the initial pop as the market takes stock of what’s happening in Japan. After rising as high as 4.31%, US 10-year yields are now trading at 4.26%. Treasury Secretary Lutnick is on the wires again saying that interest rates are too high.