GOLD HITS FRESH RECORD, APPROACHES $4,900 AMID GLOBAL TENSIONS

Wed 21 January 2026:

Gold prices continued to see record highs on Wednesday amid persistent geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

Spot gold rose about 2% to $4,860 an ounce as of 0950GMT, after touching an all-time high of $4,888 earlier in the session.

Gold has surged around 77.1% over the past 12 months, driven by trade and geopolitical tensions as well as interest rate cuts by central banks.

Silver also increased by 0.66% to $95.11 an ounce. Prices have jumped more than 208.4% over the past year.

Market participants cited renewed geopolitical concerns, including debates over Greenland following US President Donald Trump’s weekend remarks threatening additional tariffs on countries opposing US control of the territory and the deployment of military personnel there, as factors weighing on sentiment and supporting precious metals.

On Wednesday, investors are focusing on Trump’s Davos speech.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 fell nearly 2.1 percent on Tuesday as Trump doubled down on his threats to take over the Arctic island.

The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite plunged nearly 2.4 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 1.8 percent.

The declines marked Wall Street’s worst day since October.

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The US dollar, traditionally a safe haven for investors during periods of stock market volatility, fell 0.8 percent against a basket of major currencies.

European stocks also fell on Tuesday, with the FTSE 100 in London closing about 0.7 percent lower and the DAX in Frankfurt down more than 1 percent.

The sell-off in stocks continued into Wednesday in Asia, with Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI dropping more than 1 percent in early trading before making up much of their losses later in the morning.

Trump’s insistence that Greenland must be brought under US control has taken US-European relations to their lowest ebb in decades, prompting fears for the survival of the NATO military alliance and the free flow of transatlantic trade.

Trump has also refused to rule out the use of military force to achieve his aims, despite the US and Denmark both being NATO members.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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