Wall St skids to near three-week low as Greenland dispute triggers global sell-off

NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes started the holiday-truncated week on a dour note as investors were spooked by fresh tariff threats from President Donald Trump against Europe amid a dispute over control of Greenland.

The major indexes slid toward three-week lows on Tuesday amid a risk-off wave that vaulted gold to fresh record highs, knocked stocks lower globally and left US Treasuries wobbling under renewed selling pressure.

The Nasdaq broke below its 50-day moving average - an important technical threshold - while the S&P 500 hovered at the edge.

Trump said on Saturday additional 10 percent import tariffs would take effect on February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain — all already subject to tariffs imposed by the US

The tariffs would increase to 25 percent on June 1 and would continue until a deal was reached for the US to purchase Greenland, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. Leaders of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, and Denmark have insisted the island is not for sale.

“We think we’ll settle down and realize this is just a negotiation tool,” said Jeff Buchbinder, chief equity strategist for LPL Financial.

“We certainly don’t expect a military conflict with Greenland or Denmark or our European allies. But the fact that tariffs were used have got investors a little bit rattled.”

Critical Metals, which has a strategic presence in Greenland, slipped 2.7 percent.

On Tuesday, Trump marks one year back in office - a volatile period for markets that saw the S&P 500 plunge to near bear market territory following “Liberation Day” tariffs in April before rebounding to record highs on strong earnings and a resilient economy.

The CBOE Volatility index, also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, touched a two-month high at 19.02 points.

At 11:18 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 582.97 points, or 1.16 percent, to 48,785.03, the S&P 500 lost 79.86 points, or 1.15 percent, to 6,860.50 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 317.67 points, or 1.34 percent, to 23,199.07.