Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq rise for second day in a row as Greenland drama fades

Stocks rose for a second day in a row as the threat of an escalation over President Trump’s pursuit of Greenland faded.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained 0.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) increased 0.6%.

Tesla (TSLA) shares took the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) higher after CEO Elon Musk said the company started robotaxi rides with no safety monitor present in Austin, a long-awaited move.

The move higher in stocks comes a day after President Trump announced a “framework” for a future deal for Greenland, and abandoned the threat of fresh tariffs against European nations.

Gold (GC=F) touched a fresh record high, surpassing $4,900 for the first time and extending momentum in the precious metals trade.

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said the company started robotaxi rides with no safety monitor present in the cars in Austin, a long awaited move. This comes after Waymo announced another expansion of its robotaxi service in the US, hammering home its lead in the autonomous space – for now.

Musk also claimed on Thursday that he expects the company’s self driving service to get EU and China approval soon.

Tesla stock popped on the news in midday trade, up over 3%.

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Yahoo Finance’s Francisco Velasquez reports:

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Intel (INTC) is set to report earnings after the bell Thursday, and its financial results could either solidify or rattle the chip stock’s 47% gain over the past month amid growing Wall Street optimism over the company’s long-awaited turnaround.

Despite more positive sentiment from Wall Street analysts on the chipmaker’s turnaround recently, Intel is projected to report earnings per share declining 33% from the previous year to $0.09 and revenue falling 6% to $13.4 billion, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates. Intel stock’s upswing despite the weak outlook shows investors hoping the results will be “ less bad than feared,” Morningstar analyst Brian Colello told me Wednesday.

Read more about what Wall Street expects from the chipmaker’s upcoming report here.

Nestlé SA (NESN.SW, NSRGY) has called for initial bids for a stake in the company’s water business, which includes brands like Perrier and Acqua Panna, according to a Bloomberg report.

Shares in Nestlé on the Swiss market traded higher by roughly 0.7% in the minutes after the news broke, while American depository receipts for the company’s stock gained 0.3%.

The company is pushing ahead with plans initially disclosed in 2024 to eventually sell or spin off its water business, worth roughly 5 billion euros, or $5.8 billion.

Nestlé — which holds one of the largest consumer food portfolios in the world, including Nespresso, Stouffer’s, DiGiorno, and KitKat — has asked potential buyers to send first-round bids by the end of this month, Bloomberg reported.

Private equity giants Bain Capital, Blackstone (BX), and KKR (KKR) have all reportedly expressed interest.

Bankers are preparing between 2 billion euros to 3 billion euros, or roughly $2.3 billion to $3.5 billion, in debt financing to support potential deals, equal to four-to-six times the water unit’s 500 million euros, or $585 million, in EBITDA.

No final decisions on the timing of a sale or the size of a potential stake have been made, according to Bloomberg.

The US and Chinese governments have reportedly approved a deal to sell TikTok’s US business to a group of American investors led by Larry Ellison’s Oracle (ORCL) and the private equity firm Silver Lake Technology Management, Semafor reported on Thursday.

Shares in Oracle traded roughly 2.3% higher in the minutes after the news broke.

The deal — which was laid out in an internal memo from ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo — would see ByteDance retain a stake equal to less than 20% of TikTok’s US business, while Oracle, Silver Lake, and state-owned Emirati investment firm MGX would all take 15% stakes, according to Semafor.

Quantitative trading firm Susquehanna and Michael Dell’s family office will also reportedly invest in the deal, Semafor reported.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in December that the company had signed binding agreements with the consortium of non-Chinese investors who would take control of the social media platform’s US business.

At the time, Chew said the deal was set to close on Jan. 22, 2026, a deadline put in place by the Trump administration in an executive order that granted a 120-day-long halt on the US enforcing a federal ban on TikTok use inside the US.

The deal that has been approved by US and Chinese regulators is now set to close this week, Semafor reported. Though figures have not been publicly shared, Vice President JD Vance said in September that a deal would likely value TikTok’s US business at around $14 billion.

Meta (META) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) led the “Magnificent Seven” large-cap technology stocks higher Thursday morning amid fresh bullish takes from Wall Street.

Jefferies (JEF) analyst Brent Thill reiterated Meta as one of the investing firm’s top picks and told clients to buy the dip — shares are down 4% in 2026 — as he believes the company will solidify an AI strategy to boost its core ad business given recent hires and the potential release of a new model in the first half of the year.

“Despite reports casting doubt on these hires and META’s AI culture, with META having all the key ingredients for AI (users/data, compute, talent), we remain very positive,” he said in a note to investors Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, Raymond James (RJF) analyst Josh Beck upgraded GOOGL shares to a Strong Buy rating from Outperform, saying its integrated AI stack (chips, models, and applications) “could create one of the highest quality top-line AI acceleration stories in the public universe.”

Meta stock jumped nearly 4% Thursday morning, while Google climbed almost 2%. Other Big Tech stocks rose around 1%.

US stocks picked up steam on Thursday as investors rallied following President Trump’s decision to call off his tariff threats against European countries over his pursuit of Greenland.

The market’s biggest players led the advance, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) and blue chip-heavy Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) both picked up roughly 1%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added roughly 0.7% on top of a sharp rally Wednesday.

The stock market reacted positively after Trump announced he was pulling back from his 10% tariff plan for eight NATO members in February, easing worries that had rekindled the “Sell America” trade.

Beyond trade and geopolitics, investors will be watching for Intel (INTC) to lead out Big Tech earnings after the bell on Thursday and a shutdown-delayed report on the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the PCE price index.

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) has extended the deadline on its tender offer for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shares in its bid to acquire the company, according to a proxy document filed on Thursday.

Shares in Paramount jumped by 0.4% in premarket trading on Thursday, while shares in WBD fell by roughly 0.4%.

Paramount’s tender offer, originally filed on Dec. 8 to acquire all of WBD’s common stock at $30 per share as part of CEO David Ellison’s bid to acquire the rival company, was set to expire on Jan. 21. The new deadline for the offer is Feb. 20.

The move marks the latest step in Paramount’s months-long bid to acquire WBD, helmed by media titan David Zaslav, and beat out Netflix (NFLX), a saga that has been running since September.

Netflix shares gained roughly 0.5% in premarket trading on Thursday.

While Ted Sarandos’s Netflix is seeking to acquire WBD’s studios & streaming assets, Paramount is seeking a full buy-out of Zaslav’s media company.

Paramount’s $30 per share all-cash offer, valued at $108.4 billion, was initially rejected by WBD’s board on worries that Paramount did not have the liquidity to fund such a deal. To ease those concerns, Oracle founder and David Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, agreed to personally backstop more than $40 billion in financing for the deal.

Paramount has also sued WBD in an attempt to force Zaslav’s company back to the negotiating table.

In the latest twist in the M&A battle that has captivated Wall Street, Netflix revised its offer to an all-cash bid at $27.75 per share — valuing WBD at $82.7 billion — where previously the streaming giant had been offering a cash-and-stock bid.

Natural gas (NG=F) futures have soared, picking up more than 75% over the past five trading sessions to mark the largest five-day gain since at least 1990.

The energy product, trading around $3 per million British thermal unit (MMBtu) at the start of the week, is now changing hands at over $5 per MMBtu.

Weather forecasts are showing a major cold snap set to hit a wide swath of the eastern seaboard this coming weekend, with low temperatures and heavy snow expected across an area stretching from New York City to Dallas.

Overall, the storm is expected to impact more than 150 million people, according to AccuWeather.

“We are anticipating a major winter weather event expected to impact much of the US population this weekend, especially the Midwest and East Coast,” Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in an X post. “Please prepare and take precautions in the event of power outages, pipe-bursts, road closures, airport delays, flight cancellations, and freezing temperatures.”

Natural gas is the most common source for heating through the US, responsible for fueling 47% of heating demand, according to the Energy Information Administration. Gas also makes up a significant chunk of electrical generation power. Cold weather, like that predicted to hit New York City and the surrounding area, triggers natural gas demand as people turn on their heaters and backup generators in power outages.

Gas is also susceptible to quick pricing pressure because it can only reliably be moved around the country by pipeline, meaning extra supply cannot be quickly trucked in like oil. The data center boom is also putting increasing pressure on the market as Big Tech developers turn to gas for quick, cheap power, booking pipelines and further tightening supply.

Major US natural gas producers EQT Corporation (EQT) and Antero Resources Corporation (AR) both picked up steam in premarket trading on Thursday after rallies on Wednesday of 6% and 4%, respectively. Major pipeline operator The Williams Companies (WMB) traded down before the market open on Thursday after picking up 2.5% on Wednesday.