WEIJIA JIANG:
00:00:00
On Wall Street, the US stock market suffered big losses following the president's threat to impose new tariffs on European allies over his bid to acquire Greenland. European leaders have described Trump's fresh tariff threats as, quote, "unacceptable" and are reportedly considering countermeasures. CBS News Senior Business and Technology correspondent Jo Ling Kent joins me now. Jo, it's great to see you. Hey, Weijia. It's great to see you, too. This was the worst day on the markets since October, and really was a contradiction of what President Trump had been saying, that the US is the hottest place right now. Investors lost confidence in the US markets today. You could see the Dow down 1.8%, the NASDAQ down 2.4%, and the S&P 500 down more than 2%. When you look at the actual numbers, how much value was lost in that broader S&P 500, $1.2 trillion lost in market cap today. And Citigroup also putting out a note saying that the first two weeks of this year, they've been dizzying for investors and other bank CEOs in Davos, of course, trying to issue some calm saying, this is one day, we'll see how it all plays out. But a lot of others saying that this is the new normal and a concern of a fresh, renewed trade war certainly sent investors in a worrying direction.
WEIJIA JIANG:
00:01:27
Well, President Trump insists that it's not just threats. He says, he will 100% implement these tariffs if these countries don't come on board with his plan to acquire Greenland. If these tariffs go through, how might they impact the economy even more here in the US? Well, these are some of the most important trading partnerships in the world. And so we're talking about pharmaceuticals, automobiles, all kinds of important sectors that matter to the American consumer. So when you look at what happened today, you saw a major flight to safety to silver and gold both hitting new highs. You also have other treasury yields shooting up to their highest levels since last summer. And so when you look at that and the shakiness of the consumer or the investor confidence, that will have an impact if these threats do indeed become reality, Weijia.
WEIJIA JIANG:
00:02:23
All right. Jo Ling, I know you'll be tracking that. Thank you.
