Evening digest: Gold, silver hit record highs as Trump tariff fears slam Bitcoin and Europe stocks

Markets swung hard into risk-off mode Monday as Trump’s Greenland tariff threats reignited US-Europe trade war fears and sent investors scrambling for safety.

Gold surged to near $4,700/oz, and silver spiked above $94, crushing the dollar and rattling European equities.

Geopolitical shockwaves deepened after Trump invited Putin to a paid “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Fed faced fresh political pressure, and Bitcoin slipped below $93,000 amid liquidation-driven selling.

Gold, Silver soar to record highs

Gold and silver blasted through record highs Monday as Trump's Greenland tariff threats sent investors sprinting into havens.

Spot gold surged 2.1% to near $4,700/oz while silver jumped 4.4% to $94.08/oz, extending a jaw-dropping rally, gold up 6% year-to-date, silver 30%+.

The spike reflects a toxic cocktail: escalating US-Europe trade war fears, a weakening dollar as tariff uncertainty spreads, and central bank independence concerns after the Justice Department probed Fed Chair Powell.

Silver's outperformance is particularly sharp, with the gold-silver ratio compressing from 105 in late 2025 to the low 50s.

Analysts at StoneX warn that Trump's Greenland aggression suggests NATO dissolution and European political instability, driving safe-haven demand.

Meanwhile, European equities cratered, the Stoxx Autos Index dropped 2.2%, and luxury stocks fell 2.9%.

Trump invites to his 'Board of Peace'

Trump extended an audacious invitation to Putin on Monday to join his newly minted "Board of Peace" overseeing Gaza reconstruction, with permanent membership costing $1 billion per nation.

The Kremlin's cautious response, saying it's "looking at details," masks a deeper geopolitical tension: Trump is courting Putin even as Ukraine's war nears its fourth anniversary with no ceasefire in sight.

The board, chaired by Trump for life, features Tony Blair, Jared Kushner, and Mark Carney, but critics immediately flagged the absurdity.

Inviting a leader accused of war crimes in Ukraine to govern Gaza's peace sits poorly with European allies, particularly as Trump publicly blamed Zelenskyy (not Putin) for stalling Ukraine negotiations just days ago.

Peskov even praised Trump's Greenland ambitions, a tacit blessing of NATO's potential dissolution.

The move signals Trump's reset priorities: making deals with autocrats (Iran sanctions already eased) supersedes supporting democratic allies.

Fed Chair backs Cook as Trump escalates political war

Fed Chair Jerome Powell will sit in the Supreme Court gallery on Wednesday, an extraordinary show of institutional defiance, as justices weigh Trump's effort to fire Lisa Cook over unproven mortgage fraud allegations.

The timing is explosive: the Justice Department simultaneously probes Powell himself for allegedly misleading Congress on a Fed building renovation, a tactic Powell labeled a "pretext" to pressure him into rate cuts.

Legal experts call Trump's two-front assault on the Fed a coordinated squeeze play.

Cook denies the mortgage fraud charges, which rely solely on her 2007 loan application, signed years before joining the Fed. Cook was never charged, and no bank alleged fraud.

The broader stakes dwarf Cook's individual case.

If Trump can fire her "for cause" without judicial review, he gains a roadmap to oust Powell too, eroding the Fed's 113-year independence engineered by Congress.

Bitcoin slips below $93,000

Bitcoin tumbled 2.8% to $92,519 Monday as Trump's Greenland tariff ultimatum triggered a $869.5 million crypto liquidation cascade, with Bitcoin longs alone accounting for $229.5 million in blown-out positions.

Ether cratered 3.5% to $3,199, Solana plunged 6.6%, and even the Trump-branded meme token shed 6.4% in the selloff.

The culprit isn't technical; it's geopolitical risk aversion.

Tariffs and NATO dissolution fears don't directly impact blockchain fundamentals, but they demolish the speculative appetite needed to hold volatile assets.

Traders fled crypto for gold's safe-haven rally, with Bitcoin losing $92.5 billion in market cap overnight.

A delayed crypto regulatory bill (lawmakers postponed debate over industry objections, including Coinbase's) added fuel to the exodus.