Gold, Silver Prices Soar to Records as Trump’s New Tariff Threats Revive ‘Sell America’ Trade

Financial markets were on edge Tuesday after President Donald Trump ratcheted up his efforts to force Denmark to cede Greenland to the U.S. 

President Trump on Saturday morning threatened to impose a 10% tariff on select European countries starting February 1 if they did not agree to give the U.S. control of the semiautonomous Danish territory. The tariffs would increase to 25% on June 1, and stay in place “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

The president’s newest tariff threats sent safe haven assets sharply higher on Tuesday. Gold futures jumped to an all-time high of $4,755 a troy ounce, bringing the precious metal’s one-year return to nearly 75%. Gold prices have risen 9% since the start of the year, compared with the benchmark S&P 500 stock index, which saw its small year-to-date gains erased on Tuesday morning. Silver prices also soared to an all-time high on Tuesday, adding to big gains this year and putting the metal’s 12-month return at 200%.

The major stock indexes were down across the board as investors fled risk assets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were each down 1% or more around midday Monday. Of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors, only one—energy—was trading in the green.

The Treasury and currency markets were showing signs Trump’s latest threats have revived the “Sell America” trade that tanked the U.S. dollar and Treasurys last year. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences interest rates on an array of consumer loans, soared above 4.3% for the first time since early September on Tuesday morning. (Yields move in the opposite direction of bond prices.) The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback relative to a basket of international currencies, was down nearly 1% at 98.5 in recent trading.

The dollar plummeted and Treasury yields skyrocketed on Trump’s biggest tariff threats since last year, prompting some experts to worry international investors were abandoning U.S. assets, either in retaliation for Trump’s “America First” posture or out of concern about the volatility of U.S. policy.

The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), often called the Fear Index, jumped early Tuesday morning to trade as high as 20.69, its highest reading since late November. A VIX above 20 is a significant psychological marker on Wall Street, where readings below 20 suggest calm in financial markets and 30 indicates heightened uncertainty. 

The first year of President Trump’s second term has been punctuated by bouts of volatility. The VIX soared above 30 in early March when Trump unilaterally imposed tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico in connection to their alleged ties to fentanyl trafficking. The index closed above 40 for the first time since 2020 a month later when Trump announced his sweeping “reciprocal tariffs.” Additional tariff threats, geopolitical developments, and concerns about an AI bubble contributed to more muted jumps throughout the rest of 2025. 

“There is a limit to how many things you can put on the table without eventually one day one of them going out of control,” Sergio Ermotti, CEO of UBS, told CNBC in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The volume of news, he said “is starting to weigh on customer sentiment,” compelling some investors to focus on diversifying their portfolios.