LIVE MARKETS-US stocks start out far from the land of green

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US STOCKS START OUT FAR FROM THE LAND OF GREEN

Wall Street's main indexes are sharply lower early on Tuesday, as investors are being spooked by renewed tariff threats from President Donald Trump against Europe over control of Greenland.

Trump said on Saturday additional 10% import tariffs would take effect on February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain — all already subject to tariffs imposed by the U.S. The tariffs would increase to 25% on June 1 and would continue until a deal was reached for the U.S. to purchase Greenland, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. Leaders of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, and Denmark have insisted the island is not for sale.

The three main U.S. indexes are all off more than 1% each, and nearly all S&P 500 .SPX sectors are red.

Consumer Discretionary .SPLRCD, off nearly 2%, is taking the biggest hit among the benchmark index's sectors. Energy .SPNY, which is modestly higher, is the only group in positive territory.

Mag Seven stocks MAGS.K are under pressure, while precious metals miners .XAU are advancing.

Of note, even with the early instability, the small-cap Russell 2000 .RUT is holding up better than the S&P 500. With this, the RUT/SPX ratio is on pace to rise for a 12th straight day. The last streak of small-cap outperformance that was longer was a 13-day run that ended in June 2008.

Here is a snapshot of where markets stood around 9:50 a.m. ET.

(Terence Gabriel)

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EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:

S&P 500'S 50-DMA POISED TO COME UNDER FIRE CLICK HERE

EUROPE'S NEW TARIFF FIGHT CLICK HERE

TARIFF RISKS TEST EUROPE'S RALLY, BUT MS SEES RICH PICKINGS CLICK HERE

DON'T FORGET ABOUT FRANCE CLICK HERE

STOXX HITS 2-WEEK LOW AS VOLATILITY JUMPS CLICK HERE

BEFORE THE BELL: EU FUTURES DIP, FRENCH DRINK MAKERS EYED CLICK HERE

SELL AMERICA, SELL JAPAN CLICK HERE

(Terence Gabriel is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)