The gold price surged to a record high today as investors took fright following the ratcheting up of tensions over Greenland and a potentially bruising trade war between the U.S. and Europe.
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Gold Gets Close to $5,000
Gold futures rose 1.8% to $4,677.30 an ounce in early trading, while spot prices jumped 1.5% to $4,665.72. Prices touched an all-time high of $4,689.39 in even earlier trading, getting close to the magical $5,000 mark.
President Donald Trump’s increasingly bullish talk over the U.S.’s desire to buy Greenland, controlled by Denmark, to protect its national security, and his threat to impose additional tariffs on European countries defying his wish drove the demand for the precious metal.
Gold is traditionally seen as a safe haven for investors in times of political and economic uncertainty. 2025 saw plenty of that with Trump’s initial tariff wave and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
That has led to the gold price and linked ETFs such as the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) surging higher – see below:
There has been no let-up in 2026 with Trump’s focus on Greenland as well as political strife in countries such as Venezuela and Iran.
Dramatic Greenland Threats
Specifically on Greenland, Trump’s tariff threats have been met by France requesting the activation of EU’s anti-coercion tool, which could see U.S. goods banned from the single market.
“Gold has hit fresh record highs on its glittering run upwards. The precious metal is holding even more allure as a safe haven as worries spread about the repercussions of the US aggressive trade and geopolitical policies,” said Susannah Streeter, Chief Investment Strategist, Wealth Club. “Memories of the 2025 TACO trade are still strong, with ‘Trump always chickening out’ of the most punishing of tariffs threats, but its clear that threatening to seize a territory from a fellow NATO country is a dramatic turn of events.”
Matt Simpson, senior analyst at StoneX, said: “With Trump throwing tariffs into the mix, it is clear that his threat to Greenland is real, and that we could be one step closer to the end of NATO and political imbalances within Europe,” he added.
A number of analysts, including at bank HSBC (HSBC), believe gold will continue to surge, hitting the $5,000 mark sometime in 2026.
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We have rounded up the best gold ETFs to buy now using our TipRanks comparison tool.
