Markets have mostly withstood persistent international uncertainty for the past year, but they may have reached a tipping point yesterday. Renewed tariff threats on Europe from President Trump and the looming specter of a Greenland takeover sparked another global “sell America” push—reminiscent of the response to “Liberation Day” last April.

US markets plummeted, as did Europe’s benchmark Stoxx 600 index. In Japan, fears that a snap election could aggravate the country’s tenuous finances sent Japanese bond yields to a record high. Bitcoin dropped to its lowest levels in more than a week. The asking price for a Victor Wembanyama rookie card on StockX was also down, but that’s probably unrelated to tariffs.

Fear itself

On Sunday, Trump announced he would impose 10% tariffs on Denmark and seven other European countries until the US had a deal to purchase Greenland (those duties would begin on Feb. 1 and rise to 25% by June). Traders that have been living by the philosophy of TACO (“Trump Always Chickens Out”) now seem to have adopted an ideology of UH OH:

• The VIX index, which measures market volatility, climbed above 20 points for the first time since November.
• The 10- and 30-year treasury yields reached 4.29% and 4.92%, respectively—their highest since September.
• The safe havens of gold and silver briefly touched record highs.
• The US dollar index dropped as much as 0.8%, a big move in currency markets.

Meanwhile, Danish pension fund AkademikerPension said it would divest its $100 million in US treasuries by the end of this month over long-term credit concerns. It’s an initial sign that money managers in Europe could use capital to fight back against Trump’s tariffs.

Big picture: SCOTUS still has to rule on whether Trump can impose tariffs without the approval of Congress. Trump arrives in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum today, and European leaders will be seeking meetings with him.—DL

European leaders push back on Trump’s Greenland threats. In a speech yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, French President Emmanuel Macron responded to President Trump’s threats to slap European countries with heavy tariffs unless they support his bid to acquire Greenland by saying, “We prefer respect over bullies.” The comments came after Trump posted a private text from Macron on Truth Social, in which the French president wrote, “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.” Other top officials, including EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, also spurned Trump by reaffirming Greenland’s sovereignty yesterday. Meanwhile, Greenland’s prime minister said that the Arctic territory must prepare for a possible military invasion.

Netflix upgraded its Warner Bros. Discovery offer to all cash. The biggest Hollywood bidding war in recent memory took another turn yesterday when Netflix revealed that it changed its $82.7 billion offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) film studio and streaming assets from 84% cash to 100% cash to provide more certainty for shareholders. What Netflix did not explicitly say is that the sweetened offer is also intended to stave off Paramount Skydance’s attempted hostile takeover of WBD. Netflix also reported Q4 earnings yesterday, beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations and divulging that it now has 325 million subscribers worldwide.

The Supreme Court did not rule on Trump’s tariffs. The world must wait at least another month for a ruling on the legality of President Trump’s signature economic policy after SCOTUS did not deliver an opinion yesterday, as some observers expected it to. The next day that the court could issue a decision is Feb. 20, according to Bloomberg.. Following his April 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs, which placed taxes of varying degrees on imports from virtually every country on Earth, Trump has continuously threatened additional tariffs on certain countries and products, following through on some of them. If the court rules against Trump, more than 1,000 companies could be owed billions of dollars in refunds.—AE

With so much focus on US intervention in global affairs, you may have forgotten that here in America, President Trump is targeting a member (or two) of the nation’s central bank. Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments regarding Trump’s blocked firing of Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook, whom his administration accused of mortgage fraud.

Cook denied the allegation, and no charges have been filed against her. The case focuses, in part, on whether Trump can fire her for unproven wrongdoing, and the outcome could have far-reaching implications for Fed independence:

• No president has ever removed a Fed governor.
• If Trump is allowed to remove Cook, her replacement would give Trump’s appointees a majority on the Fed’s board.
• The decision could also impact Trump’s attempts to remove Fed Chair Jerome Powell…

…who will attend today’s hearing. The show of support for Cook—which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called a “mistake”—follows a rare video statement earlier this month in which Powell confirmed that the Trump administration is investigating him for the Fed building renovations being over budget, which is widely believed to be a guise for the president’s dissatisfaction with the Fed’s interest rate decisions. Cook’s lawyers are expected to make similar arguments about her case.

Looking ahead…the Court’s decision is expected by the summer. Powell’s term as chair expires in May, but he could stay on as a governor until 2028.—ML

When the bundled up elite aren’t discussing Trump’s Greenland threats, they are trading off AI hot takes. Tech execs and other powerful leaders have used their panel spots at the World Economic Forum to talk about AI’s impact on society, whether or not the robots are really taking your job, and the global AI arms race.

Grand thoughts in the Alps included:

• BlackRock CEO Larry Fink telling the audience that capitalism exacerbated income inequality and AI could make it even worse.
• Yoshua Bengio, one of the “godfathers of AI,” warning that AI is getting way too human-like for comfort.
• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Google’s DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis agreeing that they see AI coming for junior-level jobs.
• Microsoft’s Satya Nadella saying energy costs will determine which country triumphs in the race to develop the tech.

Then there’s the China of it all…Last year, Davos’s AI discussions were dominated by DeepSeek’s releasing its powerful R1 model, but this year Hassabis said that Chinese AI companies are still about six months behind Western rivals. Still, Amodei compared allowing Nvidia to sell H200 processors to Beijing to “selling nukes to North Korea,” after President Trump said last week that he would allow advanced AI chip exports to China.—MM

It’s boom times for wee lads named Oliver, Alfie, and Ned. As energy prices rise and some Londoners turn to wood-burning stoves and fireplaces, chimney sweeps are back in style. According to the New York Times:

• Membership to the UK’s chimney sweeps association has climbed to 750, from about 590 in 2021.
• H Firkins & Sons, a chimney sweeps company that dates back to 1860, fields 70 to 80 calls a day during the winter.

Thankfully, gone are the Dickensian days when young orphans put their lives at risk to clear out the soot. “We don’t send little boys up chimneys any more,” the president of the chimney sweeps association told the NYT. “Instead it’s CCTV and smoke testing equipment.”—AE