Another start to the week, another one with Trump making the headlines

The start of the 2026 has been all about US president Trump’s threats and actions so far. In the first week, it was the invasion of Venezuela. Last week, it was the attack on the Fed’s independence and escalating geopolitical tensions involving Iran. This week, tariffs are once again back in the picture as Trump wants the EU to give up Greenland.

What a time to be alive, eh?

The latest tariffs threat is causing a stir in markets to start the new week now with risk trades on the backfoot. Trump is threatening 10% tariffs on “any and all goods” starting from 1 February and that will jump up to 25% on 1 June after. That unless “a deal is reached for the complete and total purchase of Greenland”. 🤪

Goldman Sachs estimates that the economic hit will be on exports worth roughly 1% to 1.5% of euro area GDP. The breakdown by country can be seen below:

The EU has been swift to announce retaliation, with the big one being their €93 billion tariffs package on US goods. As a reminder, this package is one that was suspended last year after both sides came to a “trade deal” over the summer. It is said that these tariffs could be put into effect on 6 February, just days after Trump’s tariffs hit.

For now, risk trades are taking a knock. US markets might be closed today for the long weekend but futures are pointing lower already. S&P 500 futures are down 0.8% and Nasdaq futures down 1.0%. Meanwhile, European stock futures are pointing to a gap lower by over 1% to start the week.

Amid the geopolitical tensions and erratic US administrative policy, precious metals are once again catching fresh bids while the dollar is sitting lower across the board. The latter did see some slight gains early on but they have been quick to fade. Here’s a snapshot of dollar pairs at the moment:

As for precious metals, they opened with a gap higher to start the week with gold now up 1.7% to $4,671 and silver up 3.7% to $93.49 currently. Hot, hot, hot. 🔥

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.