Trump TACO trade roars as stocks recover half of yesterday’s loss after messages over ‘piece of ice’ from Davos
The U.S. stock market bounced back from its worst day since October on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said he reached the framework for a deal about Greenland, an island he’s long coveted, and won’t impose tariffs he had threatened on several European countries.
The S&P 500 rallied 1.2% after Trump said the deal, “if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America” and its allies in the North Atlantic region. The announcement triggered an immediate move higher in the stock market, which found solace earlier in the day after Trump ratcheted down his rhetoric and told business and government leaders in Europe that he would not use force to take “the piece of ice.”
The de-escalation in tensions helped the S&P 500 recover just over half of its 2.1% drop from the day before and pull closer to its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 588 points, or 1.2%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2%.
Treasury yields also eased in the bond market in another signal of reduced worries among investors. Besides the progress on Greenland, they also got help from a calming of yields in Japan’s jumpy bond market. The value of the U.S. dollar, meanwhile, clawed back some of its declines against other currencies after sliding the day before.
Trump himself acknowledged how the U.S. stock market sold off on Tuesday because of his desire for Greenland, but he called it “peanuts compared to what it’s gone up” in the first year of his second term and said it would go up further in the future.
Trump has a history of making big threats that send financial markets sliding, only to pull back later and reach deals that are seen as less bad for the economy or for inflation than his initial suggestion.
On one hand, the pattern has given rise to the “TACO” acronym suggesting “Trump Always Chickens Out” if financial markets react strongly enough. On the other, Trump has ultimately struck deals that outsiders may have earlier considered unlikely, ones that he’s crowed about later. The most obvious example is Trump’s announcement of high tariffs on “Liberation Day,” which eventually led to trade deals with many of the world’s major economies.
Helping to lead the U.S. stock market Wednesday was Halliburton. The oil field services company rose 4.1% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
United Airlines climbed 2.2% after likewise reporting a better profit for the final three months of 2025 than analysts expected. CEO Scott Kirby said that the airline’s strong momentum in revenue is continuing into 2026.
They helped offset a 2.2% drop for Netflix. The streamer sank even though it reported a stronger profit than expected. Investors focused instead on its slowing subscriber growth and its lower-than-expected forecast for profit in the current quarter.
Kraft Heinz sank 5.7% after Berkshire Hathaway warned investors that it may be interested in selling its 325 million shares in the food giant that former CEO Warren Buffett helped create in 2015.
Berkshire took a $3.76 billion write-down on its Kraft-Heinz stake last summer. Buffett said last fall that he was disappointed in Kraft Heinz’ plan to split the company in two, and Berkshire’s two representatives resigned from the Kraft board last spring.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 78.76 points to 6,875.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 588.64 to 49,077.23, and the Nasdaq composite gained 270.50 to 23,224.82.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.25% from 4.30% late Tuesday. That’s almost all the way back to the 4.24% level where it was at on Friday.
That was before Trump threatened to impose 10% tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland for opposing U.S. control of Greenland. That would have been on top of a 15% tariff specified by a trade agreement with the European Union that has yet to be ratified.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4%.
The country’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has called a snap election for Feb. 8, which had sent yields of long-term government bonds to record levels and raised worries across global financial markets. The expectation is that Takaichi, who is capitalizing on strong public support ratings, will cut taxes and boost spending and increase the government’s already heavy load of debt.
After surging as high as 4.22% on Tuesday, the yield on the 40-year Japanese government bond pulled back to 4.05% Wednesday.
___
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com