US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow gain after Trump rules out 'force' to acquire Greenland

By David French and Pranav Kashyap

Jan 21 (Reuters) - Momentum, which had initially driven Wall Street benchmarks higher on Wednesday ebbed into the afternoon session, as investors absorbed President Donald Trump's latest Greenland remarks, which signaled he would not use force to acquire the territory.

After the previous day's slump - the steepest one-day selloff in three months - triggered by Trump's weekend tariff threats towards European allies and concerns over Japanese government debt, all eyes were on the U.S. president's Wednesday speech to inform market sentiment.

Addressing world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said he was ruling out military action, but argued no country other than the United States can guarantee security for the Danish territory - which he repeatedly referred to as a "big piece of ice."

His message initially drove a relief rally, with all three benchmarks climbing more than 1%. It also helped ease the CBOE Volatility index .VIX, which dropped from the mid-November high touched in the previous session.

By early afternoon though, while the S&P 500 .SPX and Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI remained in positive territory, the Nasdaq Composite had given up much of its gains.

"It's indicative of a lot of headlines, a lot of uncertainty, and the situation between the U.S. and Europe is fluid," said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial, noting that following Trump's speech, it was announced the European Parliament was suspending work on the trade deal between the U.S. and the European Union.

At 1:58 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 299.3 points, or 0.62%, to 48,787.89, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 32.13 points, or 0.47%, to 6,828.99 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 63.93 points, or 0.28%, to 23,018.25.

BANKS BOOSTED BY EARNINGS; MEGACAPS MIXED

Some of the U.S. megacaps, which had been at the forefront of Tuesday's selloff, regained ground. Nvidia NVDA.O and Alphabet GOOGL.O rose roughly 1.5% each.

Meanwhile, Netflix NFLX.O dropped 4.1% after reporting a muted outlook in its latest earnings. The streaming giant's stock was also weighed by a pause of share buybacks to help fund the purchase of Warner Bros Discovery's WBD.O studio and streaming businesses.

Elsewhere in earnings, more positive numbers from banks sent the regional banking index .KRX up 4.1%, hitting its highest since December 2024.

Charles Schwab SCHW.N rose 1.3% after reporting higher fourth-quarter profit, while Citizens Financial Group CFG.N surged 6.2% on the back of a 31.7% jump in quarterly profit.

POSITIVE ENERGY

A majority of the S&P 500 sub-sectors were in the green, led by energy .SPNY. It was buoyed by Halliburton HAL.N, which gained 4.5% after earnings beat estimates, while EQT Corp EQT.N and Expand Energy EXE.O advanced more than 3.8% as natural gas prices hit a six-week high on cold weather.

Meanwhile, United Airlines UAL.O rose 1.7% after the carrier issued an upbeat outlook for the current quarter and the full year. Other airlines benefited from the positive sentiment, with Delta Air Lines DAL.N, American Airlines AAL.O and Southwest LUV.N all gaining between 0.5% and 1.6%.

Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N dipped 1.1% despite forecasting 2026 sales and profit ahead of Wall Street estimates.

Kraft Heinz KHC.O fell 5.9% after a regulatory filing showed Berkshire Hathaway BRKa.N may shed its 27.5% stake in the consumer company.