Good morning, investors. The power of the Oval Office can now be deployed straight onto our social media feeds, and President Trump knows it.

With a few comments his own social platform, he just wiped out a sizable chunk of market cap across three distinct sectors.

Editor’s note: Defense stocks rebounded in overnight trading, likely due to President Trump’s tweet to increase the US military budget to $1.5 trillion in 2027 due to tariff revenue.

President Trump just put the defense, housing and private equity sectors on notice. 

Delivered in a pair of Truth Social posts, Trump signaled a renewed willingness to pressure corporate behavior, targeting defense contractors’ shareholder payouts and institutional investors’ role in the property market. 

“While we make the best Military Equipment in the World (No other Country is even close!), Defense Contractors are currently issuing massive Dividends to their Shareholders and massive Stock Buybacks, at the expense and detriment of investing in Plants and Equipment,” Trump wrote in a post.

“This situation will no longer be allowed or tolerated!”

He added that executives at defense contractors with Pentagon contracts that are behind schedule or over budget should be barred from earning more than $5 million annually.

With dividends and share buybacks being one of the sector’s selling points, investors immediately reacted.

In this scenario, Trump’s comments seem to reframe capital returns as a misallocation rather than corporate discipline.

Shares of General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman all tumbled. 

President Trump extended similar messaging to housing and private equity, arguing that corporate ownership of American homes has reduced supply and pushed prices out of reach.

“I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it,” Trump wrote.

“People live in homes, not corporations.”

Shares of Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent both fell, as did Blackstone and Opendoor. 

Institutional ownership of housing has risen since the 2008 financial crisis and, though limited in scale, has become a political flashpoint as home prices reached historic highs.

Over the last decade, the appeal for private equity and corporate landlords has become obvious.

Steady rental income, scarce supply and rising property values offer a durable, yield-oriented strategy. 

The White House did not specify how it would go about implementing Trump’s stated restrictions on housing or defense, but the immediate knee-jerk market reaction suggests investors are hesitant to wait for more clarity.

📉 Job openings fell to 7.1 million in November. That missed estimates and reflects a labor market stuck in “no hire, no fire” status. Construction jobs increased, while those in accommodation and food services fell. (Yahoo Finance)

🚢The US is ramping up its Venezuela oil embargo. Special forces forcibly boarded a vessel while the Coast Guard seized another in the Caribbean as part of an escalation campaign against a shadow fleet shipping sanctioned crude. (WSJ)

🚀 Bitcoin Investor Week 2026 returns to NYC Feb 9–13. Hosted by Anthony Pompliano, speakers include Mike Novogratz, Grant Cardone, Anthony Scaramucci, Jan van Eck, Lyn Alden and Bo Hines. Opening Bell readers can get 25% off of general admission tickets with code OBD25. Buy your tickets here.

Stephanie Aliaga, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, joined me on Full Signal to discuss why AI bubble fears are overblown, the financing behind the data center buildout, how investors should position in 2026, and more.

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🗓 January 8, 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “war on poverty” in his State of the Union address, launching an expansive set of domestic programs.

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📰 I’m Phil Rosen, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Opening Bell Daily. I’ve published books, lived on three continents, and won awards for my journalism, which has appeared in Business Insider, Fortune, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg and Inc. Magazine.

I write our flagship newsletter and host our show, Full Signal, to prepare you for each trading day — unpacking markets, economic data and Wall Street with analysis you won’t find anywhere else.

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