The issue of divestment had been raised in a weekend note to clients by Deutsche Bank’s chief foreign exchange strategist George Saravelos. But Bessent said he had received a call from Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Christian Sewing to say that Saravelos’ arguments didn’t represent the bank’s views.
“Of course, the fake news media, led by the Financial Times, amplified it,” Bessent said.
U.S. bond and stock markets had sold off sharply on Tuesday in response to growing concerns that the U.S.-Europe rift over Greenland could reignite the trade war that was feared in 2025, but which failed to materialize.
Bessent also noted that the selloff had been aggravated by volatility in the Japanese bond market, where fears about the country’s long-term ability to pay its debt flared up again.
“I think it is very difficult to disaggregate any of the noise around Greenland,” Bessent said, adding that his Japanese counterpart had reassured him that Tokyo would act to keep its bond market stable.
Earlier in the press conference, Bessent had repeated his criticism of European leaders’ “inflammatory” commentary on the Greenland dispute and blasted European countries’ announcement that they will deploy military personnel to Greenland.
“For those countries to activate their troops, I’m not sure what signal that is supposed to send,” he said. “It’s pretty quixotic.”
Bessent’s comments landed a few hours before a highly anticipated speech by Trump. The U.S. president’s arrival in Davos was delayed about three hours due to technical issues with Air Force One.