Breaking Update: Here’s a clear explanation of the latest developments related to Breaking News:Widespread selloff hits stocks as Trump’s threats over Greenland unnerve investors– What Just Happened and why it matters right now.
Item 1 of 3 Futures-options traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange’s NYSE American (AMEX) in New York City, U.S., January 15, 2026. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
NEW YORK/PARIS, Jan 20 (Reuters) – A widespread selloff spread across equities on Wall Street, Europe and Asia on Tuesday following market volatility stirred by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to reignite a trade war with Europe over Greenland.
Sign up here.
The threat reignited the “Sell America” trade that had emerged after Trump’s “Liberation Day” levies announced last April.
EU leaders will discuss possible responses, including tariffs worth 93 billion euros ($109 billion) on U.S. imports, at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday.
“The geopolitical risks that we’ve been talking about for a long time are re-emerging and are shifting market perceptions of common alliances across allies in Europe,” said Wasif Latif, chief investment officer at Sarmaya Partners in New Jersey.
“That is coupled with what’s going on in Japan with the JGB yields continuing to rise and the market caught asleep at the wheel on that risk that’s out there. So it’s all coming together for a pretty significant risk-off day.”
“But we have to take all this with a grain of salt because what we’ve seen in prior times is that we get a risk-off and a selloff like this and the Trump administration and the powers that be walk things back and calm things down,” Latif added.
TARIFFS THREATENED ON FRENCH WINES AND CHAMPAGNE
Amelie Derambure, senior multi-asset portfolio manager at Amundi in Paris, said that the downward move in markets was “precautionary profit-taking and some risk reduction,” but that markets were helped by the macroeconomic backdrop.
The euro was up 0.65% against the dollar at $1.1721, having earlier hit its highest since January 2 . The Japanese yen strengthened 0.07% against the greenback to 158.18 per dollar. The dollar index was down 0.52% at 98.58 and heading for its second day of declines.
U.S. Treasury yields rose in early trading to their highest since September. U.S. markets were closed on Monday for a public holiday, so the move was a delayed reaction to developments that began over the weekend.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 6.3 basis points to 4.295%. The yield curve between 2-year and 10-year U.S. Treasuries, and between 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasuries, steepened by the most since October , .
The yield on the benchmark German 10-year Bunds fell 0.4 basis points to 2.858%.
Spot silver slipped 0.18% to $94.51 an ounce, after hitting a record $95.87.
($1 = 0.8535 euros)
Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York and Elizabeth Howcroft in Paris; Editing by Barbara Lewis, Jan Harvey, Nick Zieminski, Cynthia Osterman and Edmund Klamann
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
