Gold and silver jump to record highs on Greenland tariff threats

Spot gold climbed 1.4% to $4 658.31 an ounce as of 10:44 a.m. in Singapore, hitting a peak of $4 690.59 earlier.

Gold and silver jumped to record highs as President Donald Trump’s intensifying push to take over Greenland spurred fears of a damaging trade war between the US and Europe.

Spot gold traded near $4 660 an ounce, while silver surged as much as 4.4% as Trump’s aggression weighed on the dollar and buoyed demand for havens. The US will slap tariffs on eight European nations — including France, Germany and the UK — that oppose the plan to acquire Greenland. The 10% levies will kick in on Feb. 1 and rise to 25% in June.

European leaders will hold an emergency meeting in the coming days as they explore possible counter-measures. Member states are discussing several options for how to respond, including retaliatory levies on €93 billion ($108 billion) of US goods, people familiar with the talks said.

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French President Emmanuel Macron may request the activation of the European Union’s anti-coercion instrument, Bloomberg reported. The ACI is the bloc’s most powerful retaliation tool, and allows the EU to deploy an array of steps in response to coercive trade measures.

The Greenland-inspired tensions are different from last year’s Liberation Day tariffs as they “point to a deeper geopolitical fault line,”said Charu Chanana, the chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets in Singapore. “Using tariff threats inside the alliance is a kind of trust shock that can leave a stickier risk premium,” she said, referring to NATO.

Precious metals have rallied sharply this year, following dramatic gains in 2025, as the US seized Venezuela’s leader and then doubled down on threats to take Greenland. The Trump administration has also renewed attacks on the Federal Reserve, intensifying worries over the central bank’s independence and fueling the debasement trade, where investors avoid currencies and government bonds on concerns over debt levels.

A broader rotation into the metals complex, led by investors in China, has added further impetus to the rallies in gold and silver. Exchange-traded funds’ gold holdings jumped 0.9% last week, the biggest increase since September, and have expanded in seven of the last eight weeks.

Many analysts expect the stunning gains to continue, with Citigroup Inc. forecasting last week that gold would reach $5,000 an ounce within three months, and silver would get to $100.

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“Geopolitical risks keep heating up,” said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at Capital.com in Melbourne. “Fresh trade uncertainty undermines growth prospects and US foreign policy is eroding trust in the US dollar. It’s a perfect mix for gold and silver.”

Spot gold climbed 1.4% to $4 658.31 an ounce as of 10:44 a.m. in Singapore, hitting a peak of $4 690.59 earlier. Silver was up 3% at $92.8419, and touched a high of $94.1213. Platinum advanced, while palladium dipped. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.1%.

Investors will be keeping close tabs on the US Supreme Court’s argument on Trump’s effort to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, which is due on Wednesday and could be pivotal for the central bank’s independence.

© 2026 Bloomberg

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