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U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they dont back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a message that came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation sought to lower tensions in the Danish capital. Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be unacceptable. During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals. I may do that for Greenland too, Trump said. I may put a tariff on countries if they dont go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that, he said. He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue. Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington this week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. That encounter didnt resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views. European leaders have insisted that it is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies. A relationship that we need to nurture In Copenhagen, a group of senators and members of the House of Representatives met Friday with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, and with leaders including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, thanked the groups hosts for 225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner and said that we had a strong and robust dialogue about how we extend that into the future. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said after meeting lawmakers that the visit reflected a strong relationship over decades and it is one that we need to nurture. She told reporters that Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think thats what youre hearing with this delegation. The tone contrasted with that emanating from the White House. Trump has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. The White House hasnt ruled out taking the territory by force. We have heard so many lies, to be honest and so much exaggeration on the threats towards Greenland, said Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician and member of the Danish parliament who took part in Fridays meetings. And mostly, I would say the threats that were seeing right now is from the U.S. side. Murkowski emphasized the role of Congress in spending and in conveying messages from constituents. I think it is important to underscore that when you ask the American people whether or not they think it is a good idea for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast majority, some 75%, will say, we do not think that that is a good idea, she said. Along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, Murkowski has introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of U.S. Defense or State department funds to annex or take control of Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member state without that allys consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council. Inuit council criticizes White House statements The dispute is looming large in the lives of Greenlanders. Greenlands prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said on Tuesday that if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU. The chair of the Nuuk, Greenland-based Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents around 180,000 Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russias Chukotka region on international issues, said persistent statements from the White House that the U.S. must own Greenland offer a clear picture of how the US administration views the people of Greenland, how the U.S. administration views Indigenous peoples, and peoples that are few in numbers. Sara Olsvig told The Associated Press in Nuuk that the issue is how one of the biggest powers in the world views other peoples that are less powerful than them. And that really is concerning. Indigenous Inuit in Greenland do not want to be colonized again, she said. Daniel Niemann and Darlene Superville, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said on Friday it will start including ads for those who use the app for free, or have the cheapest subscription, ChatGPT Go. In the coming weeks, the company plans to start testing those ads in the U.S., which will directly relate to user prompts and conversations, “so more people can benefit from our tools with fewer usage limits or without having to pay,” the company said. According to OpenAI, the ads will be “clearly labeled” at the bottom of the chat and users can turn off personalization if they want. As for whether the ads will influence the answers ChatGPT provides, OpenAI said the “responses are driven by whats objectively useful, never by advertising,” and user data and conversations “are protected and never sold to advertisers.” ChatGPT Go, which launched in India last August and has since rolled out in 170 countries, is now coming to the U.S. and everywhere the AI chatbot is available. It’s ChatGPT’s fastest-growing plan, and OpenAI claims it is “among the most affordable AI subscriptions globally.” (Of course, many AI chatbots are free.) ChatGPT Go costs $8 a month, and offers access to its latest model, GPT5.2 Instant, giving users expanded access to messaging, image creation, file uploads, and memory, the company said in a statement. For those who want to avoid ads, more premium subscriptions such as ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Pro come ad-free. With this launch, ChatGPT now offers three subscription tiers globally: ChatGPT Go at $8 per month; ChatGPT Plus at $20 per month; and ChatGPT Pro at $200 per month.
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E-Commerce
Stocks wavered in afternoon trading on Wall Street Friday as the first week of corporate earnings season closes out with markets trading near record levels. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% after shifting between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points, or 0.1%, as of 3:17 p.m. ET. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. Technology stocks were the strongest forces behind the market’s moves. The S&P 500 has slightly more losers than gainers, but several big technology stocks made strong gains and countered losses elsewhere. Nvidia rose 0.4%, Broadcom rose 2.8%, and Micron Technology rose 6.8%. All three are semiconductor companies that are among several Big Tech companies with outsized valuations that often push the market higher or lower. A handful of regional U.S. banks reported their earnings following mixed reports from their larger peers. Pittsburghs PNC jumped 3.9% after it beat Wall Streets fourth-quarter targets, but Regions Financial fell 3% after reporting results that missed forecasts. Outside of the banking sector, transport company J.B. Hunt Transport Services fell 1% after reporting mixed quarterly financial results. The latest round of earnings updates from companies could help give Wall Street a better sense of how consumers are spending their money and how businesses are operating amid economic concerns brought on by inflation and tariffs. Results from the technology sector are being scrutinized by investors trying to figure out whether the high stock prices fueled by the craze around artificial intelligence are justified. Despite the strong start to 2026, we would not be surprised if markets experience volatility in the coming weeks as fourth-quarter earnings progress and the threat of escalating geopolitical tensions remains, wrote Doug Beath, global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, in a note to investors. Wall Street will have a broader mix of earnings to review next week, coming from airlines, industrial companies, and technology companies. United Airlines, 3M, and Intel are all scheduled to release their quarterly earnings results next week. Crude oil prices rose after dropping sharply on Thursday. The price of U.S. crude oil rose 0.4% to $59.44 and the price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.6% to $64.13. Oil prices have been volatile amid widespread protests in Iran against that countrys leadership and President Donald Trump’s warnings that the U.S. will come to their rescue. Gold prices, which have also been volatile this week, fell. Prices for the precious metal, often viewed as a safe haven amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty, fell 0.6%, but are still up more than 5% so far in January. Treasury yields moved higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23%, from 4.17% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do, rose to 3.60%, from 3.57% late Thursday. The Fed’s next policy meeting on interest rates is in two weeks, and Wall Street is betting that it will maintain its current benchmark interest rate. The central bank is trying to balance a slowing jobs market with stubbornly high inflation. Updates on inflation this week showed that prices remain above the Fed’s 2% goal. The U.S. central bank will get one more update on inflation next week when the government releases the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE. It is Fed’s preferred measure for inflation. European markets fell, and markets in Asia were mixed. Taiwan’s benchmark index rose 1.9% after its government signed a trade deal with the U.S. China, which claims the self-governed island as its own territory, protested the agreement. The deal with Taiwan comes amid an ongoing trade war between the U.S. and much of the world. Uncertainty over tariffs have raised concerns about inflation and economic damage because of higher costs for businesses and consumers. Canada is the latest to shift its partnerships because of the uncertainty. It has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products as part of the break with the U.S. Tesla rose 0.4%, and Rivian fell 2.6%. By Damian J. Troise, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
The northern lights could light up the skies above several northern states this weekend. The aurora borealis will be visible Friday and Saturday nights over North America, and most prevalent for those states on the northern border of the mainland, according to a forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center. Friday offers the highest odds of visibility for most Americans, with the northern lights potentially visible in those states stretching from Washington to Maine, and as far south as Iowa. And Fridays aurora could be brighter, with a score of 5 out of 9 on an index measuring the three-day geomagnetic forecast. For the aurora borealis fanatics, NOAA even offers a more detailed 30-to-90 minute forecast of the location and intensity of the lights. This weekend will mark the first in 2026 when the northern lights are predicted to be visible in the U.S. WHEN AND WHERE TO SEE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS Northern lights can bring vibrant greens and purples to the night sky, and the best aurora is typically in the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. period. NOAA recommends facing north, in a spot away from light pollution for the best viewing. According to NOAA, the aurora borealis could be visible in up to 15 states on Friday: Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. If you seem to be seeing the northern lights more frequently than you recall in the pastor, at the very least, hearing about themits true: Theyve become a more common sighting in recent years. Thats because the sun is at the maximum of its 11-year solar cycle, according to astronomers. During solar maximum, the sun blazes with bright flares and solar eruptions, according to information from NASA about the current solar cycle that began in 2019. LOOK TO THE SKY The northern lights wont be the only highlight of the night sky this weekend: If you missed the optimal naked-eye viewing of Jupiter last weekend, when it was its biggest and brightest for the year, the largest planet in our solar system will also light up this sky this weekend with a bright orange color. With small binoculars, you may even be able to view Jupiters four moons. Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will also be visible this weekend, according to The Sky Live. And while far fewer people will get to see this, SpaceX has a rocket launch planned for Friday evening from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, a military base near Santa Barbara, California. The launch will send the twelfth batch of satellites into orbit as part of a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman.
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E-Commerce
Meet the new CEO of Sam’s Club: Latriece Watkins. As you’ll hear from my interview with Watkins this week’s episode of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies podcast, she is a Walmart veteran, who began her career in the real estate division in 2006. Over the next two decades, she rose up through the ranks to become Walmart’s chief merchant in 2023, making her one of the most powerful people in the retail industry, responsible for choosing the $500 billion worth of products the retailer sells every year. In recent years, Watkins has made a deliberate attempt to woo higher income consumers into stores by introducing higher-end brands, like Sonos and LaRoche Posay, as well as elevating its fashion, home and food private labels. Her team’s product curation appears to be working: In recent quarters, Walmart’s has been gaining market share among households that make upwards of $100,000 a year. Now, Watkins has been tasked with running Walmart’s membership club, which generated $90.2 billion in net sales across its 600 stores in 2024 making up roughly 13% of Walmart’s total revenue. In many ways, her promotion makes sense, since Sam’s Club customers tend to be more affluent than those from Walmart. Watkins has proven she’s skilled at meeting these needs of these customers. Watkins is now tasked with stealing market share from CostCo, the biggest player in the membership warehouse club industry, which generated $269.9 billion last year, an 8.1% increase over the year before. Part of CostCo’s success has come from its private label, Kirkland, which now drives roughly a third of its total revenue. Watkins is skilled at developed successful private labels. It was under her leadership that Walmart launched its first new private label grocery brand in two decades, called Bettergoods. Every aspect of the brand from its chic, colorful packaging to its focus on global flavors was carefully designed to win over today’s consumers. And yet 90% of products in the line cost under $5. Sam’s Club has its own private label called Member’s Mark, which also generates about a third of its revenue. Part of Watkins’ mission will no doubt be to ensure that Member’s Mark grows as a business, and continues to evolve to keep pace with changing consumer tastes. In some ways, Watkins has the opportunity to be more experimental at Sam’s Club than she was at Walmart. As a smaller, nimbler brand, Sam’s Club has become something of an innovation lab to test out retail concepts that, if successful, may be adopted by Walmart. For instance, in 2024, Sam’s Club unveiled cashierless checkouts in a few stores: Customers simply scan products themselves on their Sam’s Club app, pay for them using their credit card, then walk out the door. (Entrances now have arches equipped with computer vision to check what’s in a person’s cart, avoiding manual receipt checking.) Sam’s Club also tries things out with its private labels. In 2022, it set out to remove 40 potentially harmful ingredients in the Member’s Mark line a goal it achieved last week. Walmart used learnings from this process to make Bettergoods products without these ingredients as well. Watkins has helped Walmart navigate through difficult times, from a volatile economy to new tariffs to inflation. She’s well-equipped to steer Sam’s Club through these choppy waters.
Category:
E-Commerce
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