1. Trump announced a 10% tariff on goods from European countries that have rallied to support Greenland.

“The news is obviously negative, and it could jeopardize the trade deal recently struck between Washington and Brussels,” Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge wrote in a note. Still, “markets will probably stay relatively calm about the Greenland tariff threat, at least for the time being.”

The tariffs would have only a modest economic impact if enacted, but imply far more serious political and geopolitical consequences, Capital Economics says in a note. Chief economist Neil Shearing says the legal basis for such tariffs is unclear and notes that Trump hasn't followed through with other similar threats.

For Europe, EUROSTOXX 50 futures and DAX futures both shed 1.1%, while FTSE futures lost 0.4%. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.8%, and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1%.

Gold and silver both jumped to all-time highs.

2. Even for Tech exposure, Europe is the market to be in right now.

TSMC earnings are very positive for European chip equipment suppliers. Tech is the second-best performing Stoxx 600 sector in January, up 10%, and only behind basic resources. That’s a sharp contrast to the S&P 500 Information Technology Index, which is little changed.

A key reason why European tech is burning brighter is its heavy exposure to chip equipment names. ASML, ASM International and BE Semiconductor make up nearly 40% of the Stoxx 600 Tech Index and are responsible for almost 90% of the sector’s new year rally.

However, the latest gains have made valuations look more stretched. On a two-year forward basis, ASML is priced at 42 times, above the 10-year average of about 31 times. But bulls may argue that stocks aren’t as expensive as they seem, because forward estimates should rise further if TSMC follows through on its spending commitments. More broadly, the sector’s valuation isn’t that demanding. The Stoxx 600 Technology index trades at about 26 times forward earnings, in line with US peers.

3. The Russell 2000 index of more domestically-focused small-cap stocks continues to outperform the S&P 500.

4. Telecoms getting another upgrade, this time from Deutsche Bank.

Several strategists are getting bullish on European Telecoms on sector consolidation, improving returns and cheap valuation. “Ongoing cost efficiencies, twinned with normalising capital intensity and operating leverage, should combine to ensure that a number of stocks continue to deliver attractive bottom line growth rates over the medium-term. Our bottom-up forecasts imply that the Telco sector should deliver 14% EPS growth in 2026E.

We are buyers of Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Proximus…

The shares are -17% from their July highs. This reflects a surprise profit warning across the company’s Global unit. Whilst unhelpful, we note “Global” only represents 10% of group EBITDA, and furthermore the share price de-rating now offers an attractive entry point heading into the company’s 2026 CMD on 27th February. Valuation remains very undemanding: Proximus is still trading at less than 4.5x EV/EBITDA, while peer KPN is trading at close to 7.5x. Our target price is EUR 10.2, that’s 40% upside. Proximus also offers a compelling 9% dividend yield.

5. Memory: the new AI bottleneck.

Inference becomes a memory challenge, not just computing capacity. Memory access increasingly determines the performance of longer text, image/video and Agentic AI workflows, with far more robust memory requirements than prior AI models to support context, autonomy and continuous learning. These systems require superior server DRAM and enterprise NAND to function effectively.

A steeper pricing climb and favourable conditions will likely persist through 2027.

Multiples have expanded, but we think stock calls can still work with much higher earnings upside from here. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynics have gone up but are still very attractive at P/E’s of 8.5 and 5.5 respectively for 2026.

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