While the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.75% and the S&P 500 closed down 2.1% in response to President Trump's latest threats to increase tariffs on French wine and spirits 200% and on all imports from eight European countries by 10% immediately if Denmark doesn't surrender Greenland to the United States, a basket of 15 Alcohol Beverage stocks with just two exceptions – Pernod Ricard (-0.17%) and LVMH (-5.76%), both headquartered in France, one of the eight countries on Trump's target list – posted gains.

• Brown-Forman was up 2.99%
• Anheuser-Busch InBev was up 0.47%
• Davide Campari-Milano jumped 6.06%
• Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits was unchanged
• MGP Ingredients was up 1.27%
• Boston Beer jumped 5.28%
• Constellation Brands rose 4.47%
• Molson Coors rose 2.15%
• Willamette Valley Vineyards advance 3.03%
• Treasury Wine inched up 0.83%

While Trump was running around making noise as if a new trade was was starting, Commerce Secretary Howard Lunick played down the likelihood of a new trade war during a speech at the Woorld Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.

“We are here to make a very clear point: globalisation has failed the west and the United States of America. It’s a failed policy. It is what the west has stood for, which is export, offshore, find the cheapest labour in the world, and the world is a better place for it. The fact is, it has left America behind. It has left American workers behind,” he said.

But as disastrous as Trump believes globalization has been for U.S. workers, so has his tariff policy been. A study by the Kiel Institute we reported yesterday finds the American consumer has paid 96% of all tariffs.

Lutnick said Trump uses tariffs as a way to say other nations need to talk with the U.S. "Do I think the trade deals that we’ve set with Europe, with the UK, are they durable? I absolutely do … What I see happening is diplomacy and talking and at the table, rather than action, which is something I think the president cares about,” Lutnick said.

Poll: No to Military Force to Acquire Greenland

In a related development, New Reuters/Ipsos polling shows that more Americans oppose rather than support the U.S.’ efforts to acquire Greenland and two-thirds are concerned that these efforts will damage the NATO alliance and U.S. relationships with European allies.

 And while attitudes towards U.S. efforts to acquire Greenland vary across partisan lines, there is common ground on one key aspect: very few think that the use military force to acquire Greenland is a good idea.