Sandisk Surges, Amazon on the Move, and Is Greenland ... Next?
Let's look at some tough talk about Greenland, chart Amazon, and check the performance of memory and storage stocks.
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Since the successful raid into Venezuela to capture former dictator Nicolas Maduro, speculation has increased that the U.S. could use military force to more or less enforce the Monroe Doctrine. On Sunday, Pres. Trump, from Air Force One, said, "We need Greenland. It's so strategic."
The president has discussed the idea of the U.S. needing to control Greenland on and off since his first term.
A military operation would realistically be unlikely as it would effectively terminate the NATO alliance. The Danish government has responded to Pres. Trump, by investing in the semi-autonomous nation's infrastructure and defense, though not to the U.S. president's satisfaction. In addition, the Danes have suggested that the U.S. could increase its military presence on Greenland and that the U.S. could obtain increased mining rights on the very large, but not very green, island.
That's the thing right there. Greenland is the home to large, untapped reserves of lithium, copper, nickel and graphite as well as rare-earth elements such as neodymium, dysprosium and scandium. These and other rare earths are used in the manufacture of defense industry electronics, wind turbines and electric batteries and vehicles.
Does the U.S. need to have control over Greenland to better safeguard those resources against global players such as Russia and China? The president appears to think so. White House press sec. Karoline Leavitt released a statement that included this perhaps unnecessary sentence: "The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, using the U.S. military is always an option at the commander in chief's disposal."
Late Monday, there was a briefing with Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine (chair of the Joint Chiefs) present. In response to a question from New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sec. of State Marco Rubio supposedly said the goal of the administration is to purchase Greenland from Denmark and that the administration is not signaling anything imminent militarily.
Current U.S. Presence
U.S. forces are already on Greenland? That's true, but this is a very small force. Less than 200 U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force personnel are stationed in Greenland. The base operates early detection radars for warning of ballistic launches while also tracking satellites.
The New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing, while not garrisoned on Greenland, does operate regularly inside Greenland using Kangerlussuaq Airport. Very interestingly, this year, the Department of Defense moved Greenland from EUCOM to NORTHCOM. Basically, that moves responsibility for the defense of Greenland from the U.S. European command to the same command as the U.S. homeland.
Something for Nothing?
Not exactly. We'll pay for it. On Tuesday evening, Pres. Trump posted to his Truth Social account, "I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America."
The president did add, "This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!"
The president completed his post with this... "I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately. It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States."
Marketplace
Tuesday was another strong day for U.S. equity markets. That's three positive sessions in a row, but still no confirmation of trend, because there has not been what I would consider a pause in the "risk-on" activity. The lack of a "confirmation day" does not make the activity any less real. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 gained 0.62%, while the Nasdaq Composite tacked on 0.65%. The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high. Moving away from the majors, the action was even more bullish.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ran 2.75% as memory and storage continue to scream higher. Sandisk (SNDK) popped for a gain of 27.6%, Western Digital (WDC) gained 16.7%, Seagate Technology (STX) gained 13.9% and Micron Technology (MU) added 11.7%. Sandisk, by the way, closed up 772% from its August low on Tuesday. The Dow Transports, as well as all of the small to mid-cap indices were able to tack on more than 1% for the regular session.
Breadth
Nine of the 11 S&P sector SPDR ETFs closed out the Tuesday session in the green. Four of these funds gained more than 1% led by Materials (XLB) and followed by Health Care (XLV) . Energy (XLE) led the losers, surrendering a disturbing 2.67% for the day. Interestingly, unlike Monday, there was no leadership shown by cyclicals nor did the defensives really lag. Cyclical, defensive and growth sectors were well dispersed throughout the daily performance tables.
Winners beat losers by slightly less than a two-to-one margin at the NYSE and by something close to a five-to-three margin at the Nasdaq on Tuesday. Advancing volume took a near-commanding 68.2% share of composite NYSE-listed trade and a 59.1% share of composite Nasdaq-listed activity. Trading volume started to slow down, at least for NYSE names. Aggregate trade dropped 4.5% across NYSE-listed securities on a day over day basis but still managed to increase 3.2% across Nasdaq-listed names.
Amazon Breakout?
Is this finally Amazon's (AMZN) time? On Dec. 17, I gave you Amazon as my runner up for 2026 stock of the year. I know you want to hear about SoFi Technologies (SOFI) , because that name was my 2026 stock of the year and it got its tail kicked on Tuesday. SOFI was down 7.9% on Tuesday but is still up 3.1% for January. I will come back with more on that name. We also have to talk about Rocket Labs (RKLB) , which smashed our target price on Tuesday.
For now, however, we will talk about Amazon. Readers who follow me on Twitter will recall my AMZN closing pennant pattern that I mentioned could lead to an explosive move. That explosive move appears to be under way.
What's happening here is that AMZN, which was up 3.4% on Tuesday, broke out from its 50-day simple moving average, which forced portfolio managers to increase long-side exposure. That would put my "interim" target at $280. Why is that an "interim" target? Simple. I see my closing pennant morphing into a cup pattern. Now that moves the pivot to the left-side apex of the cup.
Should a handle develop, the pivot moves to the right-side apex of the cup. So, for now, our new pivot becomes $258 and taking that pivot would move that target to something in the $310 area. Before we get excited, let's see if this starts to look like a cup and if a handle develops. Both relative strength and the stock's daily moving average convergence divergence are sending bullish signals.
Economics
(All Times Eastern)
07:00 - MBA 30 Year Mortgage Rate (Weekly): Last 6.31%.
07:00 - MBA Mortgage Applications (Weekly): Last -5.0% w/w.
08:15 - ADP Employment Report (Dec): Expecting +46K, Last -32K.
10:00 - Factory Orders (Oct): Expecting -0.9% m/m, Last 0.2% m/m.
10:00 - ISM Non-Manufacturing Index (Dec): Expecting 52.3, Last 52.6.
10:00 - JOLTs Job Openings (Nov): Last 7.67M.
10:00 - JOLTs Job Quits (Nov): Last 2.941M.
10:30 - Oil Inventories (Weekly): Last -1.934M.
10:30 - Gasoline Stocks (Weekly): Last +5.845M.
The Fed
(All Times Eastern)
2:00 - Speaker: Reserve Board Gov. Michelle Bowman.
Today's Earnings Highlights (Consensus EPS Expectations)
Before the Open: (ACI) (.68), (MSM) (.94)
After the Close: (APLD) (-.11), (STZ) (2.64), (JEF) (.96)
At the time of publication Guilfoyle was long AMZN equity.
