GLOBAL stock markets fell with the Dollar on Monday, but gold and silver leapt to fresh record highs together with defense-and-war sector shares as US President Donald Trump followed his new 'Greenland trade tariffs' attack on America's Nato allies by telling Norway that he is "no longer thinking purely of peace" because the Nobel committee in Oslo gave the 2025 award to somebody else.

Variously accused of "economic warfare" and risking a "trade war" across the Atlantic, Trump's latest pronouncements saw European equities lose 1.1% on the EuroStoxx 600 index.

But the region's defense sector hit its 9th new record high in twelve 2026 sessions so far, gaining 120.1% since Trump returned to the White House 12 months ago tomorrow.

The STOXX Europe Targeted Defence Index has outpaced gold but not silver when priced in Euros, now 54.3% and 174.0% higher respectively from this point in 2025 after breaking through €4000 and €80 per ounce on Monday morning.

Overlooked last month for the Nobel Peace Prize − an award given to his predecessor Barack Obama during his first year as President in 2009 − "I can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America," Trump wrote at the weekend to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

On Friday the Nobel Peace Prize Committee − appointed by the Norwegian Parliament − told Trump that last week's gift to him of the 2025 prize by official winner María Corina Machado "does not alter [or] transfer" her award.

Priced in Dollars, spot quotes for London gold leapt nearly $100 per Troy ounce at the start of Asian trading today, jumping within $10 of $4700 before easing to $4670 as Asian and then European stock markets fell.

Silver prices meantime spiked $4 higher at the start of Asian trade, hitting a new all-time peak above $94 per ounce before edging back to $93.50.

"Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral," said a joint statement late Sunday from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom after Trump announced on the TruthSocial platform he owns that their products will face an additional 10% import charge from 1st February, rising to 25% in June, because they each sent a small number of troops to Greenland "for purposes unknown...playing [a] very dangerous game."

"A larger number of Danish combat soldiers are expected to arrive in Greenland on Monday evening," says Denmark's TV2 news channel.

While New York's stock and bond markets remain shut for Martin Luther King Day, the Dollar dropped today from Friday's 7-week high against the Western world's other major currencies, and the US currency also sank to its lowest FX rate since May 2023 against the Chinese Yuan, falling for 6 months running.

The world's 2nd largest economy, China made GDP growth of 5.0% in 2025 Beijing said today, meeting the Communist dictatorship's target exactly.

With the US Supreme Court due to rule this week on whether Trump's 2025 trade tariffs against China, Mexico, Canada, Europe and most of the rest of the world are in fact legal, the White House has a "backup plan that's really solid," claimed Trump's economic advisor Kevin Hassett to Fox Business on Friday, saying the President will simply impose blanket tariffs of 10% using another executive order if needed.

Trump at the weekend backtracked on previous hints that Hassett will be his pick to succeed Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve, leaving former Fed governor Kevin Warsh as the likely candidate.

Trump at the weekend also invited 60 nations including Russia − now about to mark 4 years of war after attempting to invade neighboring Ukraine − to spend $1 billion each becoming "permanent" members of his new 'Board of Peace' for war-torn Gaza.

There, more than 70,000 people have been killed and over 90% of the population displaced amid military action by US ally Israel in retaliation for the Iran-backed Hamas' atrocities of 7th October 2023.

"I say the use of tariffs against allies is completely wrong," said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer today. "It is not the right way to resolve differences within an alliance."

The UK "will not go unpunished" by Moscow for joining the USA in targeting and seizing oil tankers sanctioned over Ukraine and Venezuela, said the Kremlin's ambassador to London Andrey Kelin today.

"This is a deliberate escalation of instability," Kelin told Russian media. "Security ships will appear" to accompany Russia's illegal 'shadow fleet'.

King Charles and his heir Prince Williams are expected to make a state visit to the USA in April after Trump last year became the first US President in history to make a second state visit to Britain.

The UK gold price in Pounds per ounce today jumped through £3500 and silver briefly topped £70 per Troy ounce for the first time in history on Monday, rising 58.1% and 181.0% respectively since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the USA.