The Dividend Cafe - Wednesday - January 21, 2026

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

In this episode of Dividend Cafe, host Brian Szytel provides a market update from Newport Beach, California, highlighting a recovery in the markets with the DOW gaining 588 points. Key topics include recent geopolitical news from the Davos summit, particularly President Trump's comments on Greenland and tariffs. Szytel discusses the concept of market discipline and the impact of political strategies on market behavior. He also reviews significant economic data, notably a 9.3% decline in pending home sales and a rise in construction spending. The episode emphasizes the market's reaction to political developments and economic indicators. 00:00 Introduction and Market Update 00:48 Geopolitical News and Davos Summit 01:03 Trump's Greenland Comments and Market Reactions 03:50 Economic Data Highlights 04:31 Conclusion and Sign Off Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Welcome to the Dividing Cafe weekly market commentary focused on dividends in your portfolio and dividends in your understanding of economic life. Welcome to Dividend Cafe this Wednesday, January 21st. Brian Sightel is with you here from our Newport Beach, California. Office here, TBGHQ, as I call it. And on a nice update, actually, we had a sell-off yesterday in markets and we recovered most of that today, not quite all of it. But the Dow is up about 58 points on the day. These days, that's about 1.2%. SMP was up about the same as was the NASDAQ. So really, you had the broad-based rally in stocks. Actually, the equal weight SMP did outperform the cap-weighted version of the index.

But that said, all three of those indices were up about the same amount in percentage terms. Ten Year was down four basis points. You also had some different geopolitical news and the Davos Summit kickoff. Trump had some comments on Greenland. There was also a few pieces of economic data on the news. So I'll walk through all this with you and unpack it. But essentially what the market sold off for yesterday is why it rallied today. So Trump has been talking about Greenland and its strategic importance and some ways to go about acquiring it. It could be paid for. It could be a deal struck. It could be an ultimatum with different tariffs that were announced, which would of course

drive a retaliation from the EU to instill their own tariffs. And there was a was also the talk of even force in that acquisition. But today in Davos, he walked those things back. We talk about taco before. This is the Trump always chickens out. This is what the lovely internet comes up with in these different acronyms. But partisanship aside, there's been this underlying theme of market discipline. And what that means is announcements are made.

Strategies are attempted one way or the other. Markets will react to those things. and ultimately what we saw during Liberation Day during April and even into May was heightened volatility to the tune of 8 to 10% a day over the market saying that wasn't the most efficient thing to cause a global trade war to try to correct deficit spending and raise tax revenue and alter the behavior of what free markets ultimately provide, which is goods and services being provided at the cheapest lowest price point based on the quality and what is desired and what the market is. is going for and to impose taxes on to trying to change those behaviors. All that said, you've had this theme of Trump changing tune once markets basically tell them no way. I don't know that a 2% move yesterday in the stock market is enough to necessarily be to do that. That said, today's actions are very much in line with what we've seen before. These are negotiating tools. They're sort of a shockina on the front end with what could happen is the worst thing.

then there's a table, folks come to the table, and then there's an agreement, at least on a framework, on how the Davos announcement could work as far as a negotiation for Greenland between the EU and frankly Denmark and the United States. There you have it on that front. What we call in that paradigm, like I said, is more of market discipline showing its forces and trump heeding to them. There was a question in there today about just the idea of taking over Granland, do you support it? It was a question of David. And the answer is not by force of coercion. There's strategic benefit, and there are various elements of benefit for the United States, and there's a way to broker a deal that is diplomatic and done in a productive way without an imperialistic overview of what's going on with

taking over and adding real estate for the sake of it, then sure, I think it is mutually beneficial for that. Otherwise, I think instilling tariffs and citing trade wars and doing it in a bullying tactic way and or with force would be not ideal for the country. Two things in the economic calendar, although there weren't huge pieces of news, but I'm going to go through them. First was pending home sales. This was actually a big drop.

So we got a 9.3% decline in pending home sales. That's technically the most since we've seen since August, I'm sorry, April of 2020. So that's a big decline in pending home sales. We were expecting a 0.7% increase expected. It's a big decline there in pending home sales. You had construction spending, also real estate related, come in actually above estimates. We got a half a point versus a tenth of a point in the month of

October. That number happens to be delayed, and so I would write that one off a little bit this January. But depending home sales is fresh, that was last month, and that's a pretty big decline. So we'll have to keep an eye on that front. But that's what I have for you today. That's my around the horn. I appreciate listening. I'll be back with you tomorrow. Have a lovely evening. And thank you for listening to the Dividendin Cafe. The Bonson Group is a group of investment professionals registered with Hightower Securities LLC, member FINRA and SIPC, and with Hightower Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor with the SEC. Securities are offered through Hightower Securities LLC. Advisory services are offered through Hightower Advisors, LLC.

This is not an offer to buy ourselves securities. No investor process is free risk. There is no guarantee that the investment process or investment opportunities referenced TIRN will be profitable. Past performance is not indicative of current or future performance and is not a guarantee. The investment opportunities referenced herein may not be suitable for all investors. All data and information referenced herein are from sources believed to be reliable. Any opinions, news, research, analyses, prices, or other information contained in this research is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice.

The Bonsor Group in Hightower shall not in any way be liable for claims and make no, express, or implied, representations or warranties as to the accuracy or completeness of the data and other information, or for statements or errors contained in or emissions from the obtestions. data and information referenced here in. The data and information are provided as of the date reference. Such data and information are subject to change without notice. This document was created for informational purposes only, the opinions expressed, are solely those of the Bonson Group and do not represent those of Hightower advisors' LLC or

any of its affiliates. High tower advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. This material was not intended or written to be used or presented to any entity as tax advice or tax information. Tax laws vary based on the client's individual circumstances and can change. at any time without notice. Clients are urged to consult their tax or legal advisor for any related questions.