🚀 Markets fall on Greenland rhetoric

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Market Overview
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Year To Date Performances:

1. Wall Street face a reality check on Tuesday as markets cratered in response to President Trump’s multi-front escalation of trade and territorial disputes, most notably his aggressive pursuit of Greenland. With the Dow dropping more than 700 points as markets reopened from the holiday, the administration has doubled down by threatening a 200% tariff on French wine and champagne as retaliation for President Macron's refusal to join the newly formed “Board of Peace.” The President also sharply criticized the United Kingdom’s Chagos Islands deal, framing it as a national security failure that underscores the urgent need for a U.S. acquisition of the Arctic territory. As the European Union weighs the activation of its “Anti-Coercion Instrument” and the U.S. Supreme Court prepares a pivotal ruling on the legality of these emergency tariffs in the case of V.O.S. Selections v. Trump, global stability is further strained by reports of 5,000 deaths amid the ongoing civil uprising in Iran. Investors are now caught in a volatile feedback loop between these geopolitical shocks and a critical Q4 earnings season, with heavyweights like Netflix and Intel scheduled to report this week against a backdrop of historic policy uncertainty.

2. Sequoia Capital is reportedly finalizing a massive investment in Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI models, as part of a blockbuster funding round that could exceed $25 billion. The move is a significant departure from venture capital norms, as Sequoia already holds major stakes in Anthropic’s primary rivals, OpenAI and xAI. This "triple crown" strategy signals a fundamental shift in how the world’s most powerful VC firms view the AI sector—moving away from picking a single "winner" and toward treating these companies as essential, multi-winner infrastructure. The round, led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and Coatue Management, values Anthropic at a staggering $350 billion, more than doubling its valuation from late 2025 and setting the stage for a potential 2026 IPO.

3. Meta’s Oversight Board has launched its first-ever review of permanent account bans, a case that could redefine how billions of users are penalized across Facebook and Instagram. Historically, the Board only reviewed individual posts; however, as of January 2026, its scope has expanded to include "account-level" enforcement. The current case involves a high-profile Instagram account that was permanently disabled in 2025 despite not reaching the standard threshold of "strikes" for automatic termination. Meta took this preemptive action because the user repeatedly targeted a female journalist with visual threats of violence and used slurs against politicians. This "Account Ban for Targeting Public Figures" case serves as a pilot to determine whether Meta can bypass its own strike system to permanently remove users who exhibit a clear pattern of off-platform or severe behavioural violations.

   Headlines

   1. Novartis is negotiating a deal to shield it from US tariffs.

   2. India has signed a $3B deal for LNG with the UAE.