WSJ What’s News - Would Denmark Ever Sell Greenland?

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

A.M. Edition for Jan. 7. We exclusively report that President Trump may be aiming to buy Greenland, and that threatening rhetoric about the island is meant to pressure Denmark into negotiations. WSJ Brussels bureau chief Daniel Michaels discusses whether there’s any path to a potential deal. Plus, President Trump says Venezuela will give the U.S. up to 50 million barrels of oil. And we'll look at big banks' bullish predictions for the stock market in 2026 despite last year's runup. Luke Vargas hosts. Submit your questions about Venezuela here and tune in to the Journal’s live Q&A at 3:00 p.m. ET on wsj.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The White House talks tough on Greenland, but is it just a pretext for negotiations over a sale of the island? Plus, what 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil could mean for U.S. refiners? And big banks seem to shrug off bubble fears predicting another strong year for markets. There's also concern that some of the trades that really powered the market higher last year could struggle this year. namely AI is top of the list there. And I think a lot of investors have some concern that we could see more of that happen again this year. It's Wednesday, January 7th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal.

And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. We are exclusively reporting that President Trump may be seeking to buy Greenland and that recent threats made about the island amount to rhetoric. to push Denmark to enter into negotiations that would see it handover control. That is, according to remarks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to U.S. lawmakers on Monday. Fears of an aggressive American action led six European leaders yesterday to issue a joint statement with Denmark's prime minister that called on Washington to collectively work with allies over security concerns in the Arctic. Polling also shows that most Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the U.S.

Is that the end of the story or just the backdrop for diplomatic dealings? Daniel Michaels is the journal's Brussels Bureau Chief. Dan, how should we be interpreting these statements from Copenhagen as well as from other European capitals, and for that matter, what we're hearing from the U.S.? There are two levels to this. One is the geostrategic picture, and the other is just the politics and international relations of the day. Since Russia has become more aggressive in Ukraine and beyond, fears of Russia have increased. And part of that includes a growing fear of nuclear attack, which involves missiles launched from Russia towards North America.

Layer on top of that, China is very quickly expanding its nuclear arsenal. And any missiles launched from China to the U.S. would pass over the high north, including over Greenland. So the U.S. has a very serious, real national security concerns that Greenland fits into in a big way. But then there is the diplomacy of this, which is obviously rubbing Denmark and Europeans the wrong way because the way the Trump administration is going about presenting its case for greater U.S. presence in Greenland, which basically is that we need to own it in order to do something there. Right. And on the diplomatic front. I noticed the Danish prime minister warning yesterday that the country's NATO alliance with

the U.S. could collapse were the U.S. to invade Greenland. That could well be true, Dan, but should we not bear a mind that there's reason to think Trump, if he is thinking about some sort of purchase here, seems to view close relationships as the ones that can be most tested. Trump does seem to take a maximalist approach with allies fairly often. He did it with NATO itself last year where NATO had been targeting, spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense, and he pushed that to 5%. And almost nobody this time last year would have predicted that by the end of June, NATO would unanimously agree to do that.

So it does seem that with Greenland, Trump and his administration are taking, again, a maximalist approach at the same time that Secretary of State Rubio and some other people close to the administration, more quietly seem to be taking the approach that, no, we're not going to invade Greenland. We want to own it. We want you to sell it to us. And that the more muscular rhetoric really is a negotiating tactic. That's the context around the U.S. approach here. Are you hearing anything that would suggest there's a path in which a deal could happen? There is a potential path. Nobody in Europe seems amenable to it yet. It may be one of these things where what one day seems impossible not long after is actually achievable. That is an

approach that is getting mentioned more and more often for Greenland, that the U.S. might strike some kind of compact of free association with Greenland. Denmark hasn't signaled any openness to that yet. Greenlanders themselves don't seem open to it. It does seem that U.S. administration is looking for potential friends in Greenland and Denmark, trying to identify Greenlanders who might work with it and might lead a, what one might call an independence movement, even if it would only be independence from Greenland and then dependence on the United States. Daniel Michaels is the Journal's Brussels Bureau Chief Dan.

Thank you so much, as always. Thank you. Always good to talk. President Trump says that Venezuela intends to give the U.S. between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil, with the White House using the proceeds to benefit both countries. Venezuela's Ministry of Information didn't respond to requests for comment. Journal Energy Markets reporter Rebecca Fung explained what the barrels would amount to for the U.S.

The amount of oil that Trump says Venezuela will give to the U.S. is pretty significant. It's up to 15% of all the crew that Venezuela currently produces in a year. It would take as many as 25 of the largest oil tankers in the world to transport that oil. This is good news for Gulf Coast refineries and by extension U.S. consumers because Venezuela oils of a particular kind, which is the heavy crude, that refineries along the Gulf Coast have been looking for new sources in recent years. Energy consultants value those barrels between $1.5 and $2.5 billion at the current benchmark prices. Representatives from Chevron, Conoco Phillips, and ExxonMobil are expected to attend a White

White House meeting on Friday to discuss potential investments in Venezuela. What do you want to know about the situation in Venezuela and what comes next? Journal reporters Alexander Ward and David Huberti are holding a live Q&A on WSJ.com today at 3 p.m. Eastern. To submit a question, check out the link we've left in our show notes. European officials are looking to the White House for a public commitment to backstop Ukraine's security, a day after the UK and France pledged to set up military hubs for their troops in the country if Kiev can agree to a ceasefire with Russia. They'd also build factories to produce weapons and military equipment.

British Prime Minister Kier-Starmer talked up the agreement, which offers the clearest details yet of the security guarantees Western allies are willing to offer Ukraine. This is a vital part of our Ironcast commitment to stand with Ukraine for the long term. It paves the way for the legal framework under which British, French, and partner forces could operate on Ukrainian soil. Trump administration officials had made clear that a U.S. backstop was dependent on commitment from Ukraine's European allies.

And let's turn now to Wyoming, where abortion will stay legal after the state's Supreme Court struck down two abortion bans on Tuesday. The court ruled that two laws barring the procedure, including the nation's first ban on abortion pills, violated the state constitution. In a 4-1 decision, the justice is sided with the state's only abortion clinic and people who had sued over the abortion bans passed since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Coming up, we'll take a closer look at markets as stocks around the world hit fresh highs,

extending a record rally. But how long can it last? That's after the break. Well, for anyone wondering whether the past year's market rally has an end, think again, the Dow has had its strongest start since 2003, as you. U.S. stock markets enter year four of their rally. And not even uncertainty around Venezuela has knocked things off course with indexes in Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and London, hitting all-time closing highs this week. Our Daniel Bach spoke to journal markets reporter

Caitlin McCabe about the rally and how long it's expected to last. Investors are expecting more strong corporate earnings. Tax cuts this year are expected to really benefit corporations to. I think there's a consensus. that the economy will more or less hold up this year. And also, crucially, traders are expecting the Federal Reserve to continue to cut rates, which typically benefits the stock market. So taking all of that together, we're seeing this show up in predictions from big banks in terms of where they see the S&P 500 finishing this year. Bank of America, for example, sees the S&P 500 ending the year 3.7 percent higher than it did in 2025, while J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs are expecting

even bigger gains. Though, Caitlin, I imagine, there is some caution thinking about sectors that showed weakness last year. Well, I think we've seen some signs already that areas of the market may have run up too far too fast. If you look at Bitcoin, for example, and meme stocks that are popular among retail investors. Those have faltered a bit after charging really high last year. And more broadly, there's also concern that some of the trades that really powered the market higher last year could struggle this year. Namely, AI is top of the list there. We saw some jitters about artificial intelligence creep into the market toward the end of last year. And I think a lot of investors have some concern that we could see more of that happen again.

this year. If the S&P 500 rises this year, it would be the longest winning streak since 2007. So that's nearly 20 years ago. And in the index's history, there's only been five times where the S&P 500 has risen for four or more years in a row. Investors will get their next look at the economy's health, starting with Jolt's job openings and labor turnover data for November. That's due out this morning at 10 a.m. Eastern. And the December jobs report is coming on Friday. As far as companies and sectors go, fourth quarter earnings begin soon, and in particular, health care and biotech companies will be hoping for better performance in 2026. In the last few years, we've seen this massive downturn in biotech, even as AI and other areas of innovation have done well, biotech has struggled, layoffs companies are closing, and, you know, interest rates have had a lot to do with that there, too.

The last six months or so, it's started to turn around. That's Journal Hurd on the street columnist David Wainer on the latest episode of WSJ's Take on the Week. David added that news about even wider access to GLP1 weight loss drugs could be a real boon for the health care space. Shares of Novo Nordisk jumped earlier this week after the drugmaker said its new Wagovi weight loss pill is now widely available in the U.S. shares in rival Eli Lilly dropped on the news, but Lilly is also expected to introduce its own weight loss pill soon. Here's David again. So we're going to see potentially a really big year for these companies. Now, this is kind of similar to the AI trade because Eli Lilly recently crossed the $1 trillion

threshold. It's the only health care company outside of Berkshire Hathaway and the tech companies to have crossed that. So the market has run pretty quickly ahead on this. And so the question for this year is whether these companies are going to deliver on the promise of obesity. So we'll see what happens. And it's really significant for the entire healthcare space because, you know, biotech companies,

have surged on the anticipation that all that money is used to acquire them. There's a lot of GLP1 biotex. It's just like a really important space to watch. And for more market trends to watch in 26, check out the latest episode of WSJ's take on the week at the top of the feed wherever you get your podcasts. And that's it for what's news for this Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer and Daniel Bach, our supervising producer with Sandra Kilhoff, and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show.

And until then, thanks for listening.