Gold and silver surged to all-time highs as markets reacted to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on European countries in a bid to force a deal allowing the United States to buy Greenland, accelerating a broad move into safe-haven assets.
Gold jumped 2% on Sunday to a record $4,688 per ounce and was trading around $4,664 early Monday, while silver spiked 4% to an all-time high of $94.02 per ounce before easing to roughly $93. The rally reflected a rapid repricing of geopolitical and policy risk rather than changes in physical supply.
“When institutional and policy risks rise, markets tend to move quickly toward safe-haven assets, with gold once again coming out as the top choice,” Linh Tran, a senior market analyst at XS.com, said in a market note carried by Northern Miner. Tran said gold is no longer merely reacting to tariff headlines or monetary policy developments, but is entering a phase of strategic revaluation within global portfolios as confidence in fiat currencies is increasingly tested.
Trump said over the weekend that the United States would impose 10% tariffs on imports from the U.K., Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland by February 1 if a deal on Greenland cannot be reached. He added that the tariffs would rise to 25% in June should negotiations fail to produce an agreement.
The European Union warned that a €93 billion ($108.2 billion) package of counter tariffs agreed last year could be activated as early as February 7 if the U.S. measures go ahead. The U.K. is not currently considering retaliatory tariffs, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday.
The precious metals rally also builds on existing pressure in currency and gold markets stemming from Trump’s escalating confrontation with the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell. Recent moves in gold have already been driven by concerns over central bank independence, dollar volatility, and the potential for policy-driven inflation shocks, adding another layer of support beneath prices even before the latest tariff threats emerged.
Gold typically performs strongly during periods of geopolitical stress, policy uncertainty, and low real interest rates. The latest spike follows a 64% surge in prices last year, and the metal is already up about 8% since the start of this year as investors continue to reassess risk across global markets.
Silver has rallied even more aggressively. The metal gained 147% over the course of 2025 and is up more than 30% so far this year, according to Northern Miner, reflecting both its role as a safe-haven asset and its growing importance in industrial and clean-energy applications as geopolitical tensions and trade risks intensify.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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