The SILVER PRICE broke above $100 per ounce and gold jumped within 0.3% of $5000 on Friday, both setting fresh record prices with the steepest weekly jump since the Covid pandemic as US President Trump followed his political attack on Nato allies by suing the USA's largest bank J.P.Morgan for $5 billion.

While the S&P500 index today edged up towards last week's record high, shares in J.P.Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) fell for the 8th time in 12 sessions, losing over 10% from early January's peak.

"We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition," said Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney of the 2026 geopolitical outlook at this week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited."

Peaking at the end of today's London trading $4987 per Troy ounce, gold bullion in the world's global hub had earlier fixed around $4940 at the City's 3pm benchmarking auction, rising 7.1% from last Friday's finish with its sharpest rise since the UK went into lockdown in March 2020 as the Dollar fell again on the FX market.

Silver meantime rose for the 9th week in a row, leaping by the most since August 2020 to fix close to $99 with a 13.7% gain from last Friday's London benchmarking auction.

Spot market trading in industrially-useful silver then pushed the London price up through $100 per Troy ounce as New York silver broke $100 on all Comex future contracts for settlement between March and September.

Comex gold futures prices meantime topped $5000 per ounce for settlement between April to August.

"Don't be afraid of new record highs when buying gold," advises one trading tipster on China's Gold.cn site.

"Just go long."

"Gold prices are still rising despite the double whammy of negative data and news," warns another. "The stronger the price, the more vigilant one should be.

"Historical experience tells us that after a parabolic surge, there is often a mean reversion."

Gold prices in China − the 'safe haven' metal's No.1 mining, importing and consumer nation − today edged back to a small premium over London quotes of $0.70 per ounce, fixing in Shanghai with the 7th new all-time high in just 10 sessions at ¥1,110 per gram with a rise of 14.1% so far in 2026.

Shanghai's silver benchmarking auction also set its 7th new all-time high of the past 2 weeks, rising 46.8% since New Year's Eve to fix at 24,965 per kilo.

Equivalent to $111.50 per Troy ounce, that extended China's record run of silver price premiums above global quotes, suggesting strong demand versus supply.

But with Shanghai's derivatives exchange hiking trading margin as prices have leapt, trading volumes in Shanghai silver futures contracts this week sank to barely one-third the level of a fortnight ago, hitting the lowest since early September.

London silver has now risen by 37.4% so far in 2026, just outpacing the 33.4% surge to fresh record highs in platinum prices.

Platinum's sister metal palladium has meantime leapt by 26.5% to hit its highest prices since late-2022, when the precious metal − which finds almost its entire use in autocatalysts to reduce emissions from gasoline engine vehicles − retreated from sudden highs above $3000 after No.1 mining producer Russia began its all-out invasion of Ukraine.

Having back-tracked Thursday from putting extra tariffs on the UK, Germany and France for not giving Greenland to the USA this week, Trump yesterday said his new 'Board of Peace' − now with 35 member states including Argentina, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE but not any G7 partners, and requiring a $1 billion donation for permanent membership − "can do pretty much whatever we want to do."

Yesterday Trump also filed suit in Miami-Dade County alleging that J.P.Morgan disrupted his personal business affairs by 'debanking' him in 2021 following the January 6th riot at the Capitol.