Gold (GC=F) and silver (SI=F) jumped to fresh records on Tuesday as President Trump doubled down on his pursuit of Greenland, threatening new tariffs on Europe.
Gold futures climbed above $4,700 per ounce while silver surged to $95 per ounce, extending a string of record highs that has been building for months.
The move followed renewed tariff threats from Trump against European countries, tied to his pursuit of Greenland, including the possibility of 200% tariffs on French wine and champagne.
Precious metals have been on a blistering run, driven by strong central bank demand for gold, growing questions over Federal Reserve independence, mounting fiscal spending and US intervention in Venezuela, along with rising tensions with Iran.
“The debasement trade is on fire and precious metals are the outlet,” Robin Brooks, a senior fellow in the global economy and development program at the Brookings Institution, said on X on Tuesday morning.
Saxo Bank’s Ole Sloth Hansen noted on Sunday “the Greenland episode has poured fresh fuel on a rally that has been building for months, driven by a macro and geopolitical backdrop that has become increasingly uncomfortable for investors reliant on financial assets alone.”
In the case of silver, the jump from the low-$20 range last year to above $95 an ounce comes amid mounting concerns that global supply simply cannot keep pace with demand for industrial use.
“What you’re seeing, I think, is the upshot of 15 years of massive underinvestment in the supply side,” Craig Parry, CEO and Chairman of Canadian miner Vizsla Copper (VCU.V), told Yahoo Finance.
“There is simply no way we can as a group of mining companies, as a space, keep up with the demand that’s there, let alone the demand that’s coming,” Parry told Yahoo Finance.
Parry said his company is currently in the process of building the largest silver mine in Mexico, which will produce 20 million ounces of production per year, but the current supply gap is around 200 million.
The industry has had a structural deficit for five years, according to the Silver Institute.
China, a top refiner, began restricting silver exports at the start of the year, adding further upward pressure on prices. The country has prioritized domestic supply for its use in solar panels, which has reached record levels.
Saxo Bank’s Hansen cautioned that every silver rally eventually encounters industrial demand destruction, as fabricators and end users struggle to absorb higher input costs, cut back purchases, or seek substitutes.
“At prices around USD 90, it is likely that this process has already begun in parts of the supply chain. However, it does not happen overnight, and it rarely shows up immediately in headline demand data,” he noted.
He also pointed out that despite the surge in prices, Western-listed silver ETFs have seen net outflows. That suggests a significant share of current demand is coming from elsewhere, notably Asia, and especially China — or from leveraged trades rather than long-only Western investors.
Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.
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