Greenland and Iran tensions drive investors to gold and silver

Top officials from Greenland, Denmark and the U.S. met at the White House Wednesday to discuss Washington’s controversial bid to assert ownership over Greenland.

The session ended without an agreement, reflecting what Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen called a “fundamental disagreement” between U.S. President Donald Trump and Copenhagen.

That’s hardly surprising.

Even before convening in the White House, Greenland has made it clear it will “choose Denmark,” while Trump emphasized anything less than U.S. control of the island is “unacceptable.”

There could be worrying consequences. A potential armed clash over Greenland would trigger “monumental consequences” for the Western alliance and the global order, Iceland’s former President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson told CNBC.

On a separate foreign policy front, the president signaled more flexibility on Iran. Trump indicated that he might refrain from attacking the country because “we’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping” — though there was a slight scare early Thursday stateside when Iran briefly closed its airspace for 5 hours.

Following Trump’s comments, oil prices fell roughly 1.5% during Wednesday U.S. trading. However, global geopolitical turmoil, as well as Trump’s apparent attack on the Federal Reserve’s independence, is pushing up the prices of gold and silver. The latter has already popped 26.6% within the first two weeks of 2026.

Over in U.S. markets, major indexes fell on Wednesday, dragged down by chip stocks.

But they might get a speedy recovery. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, reported a better-than-expected 35% increase in fourth-quarter profit from a year earlier.

In other words, demand for artificial intelligence semiconductors isn’t abating yet. Still, investors now have to make the tricky balance between hedging against geopolitical risks and playing the AI theme.

U.S. freezes new immigrant visas for 75 countries. In a post on X, the U.S. government said immigrants from the list of countries “take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates.” CNBC has the full list here.

Toyota Industries hit record high. Shares rose almost 6% to 19,080 yen ($120.41) following Toyota Motor raising its tender offer price for buying out the carmaker by more than 15%. The offer now stands at over $35 billion.

China opens Trip.com antitrust probe. The investigation pertains to “suspected abuse of its dominant market position,” according to a CNBC translation of the competition authority’s statement in Mandarin. Shares of the online travel provider plunged nearly 22% on the news.

Major U.S. indexes fell Wednesday. Chip stocks weighed on markets, with Broadcom, Nvidia and Micron sliding. Asia-Pacific markets mostly declined Thursday. South Korea’s Kospi, however, climbed around 1.6% to close at a record high as the country’s central bank kept rates unchanged.

[PRO] Gold and silver are smashing records. The precious metals had a massive rally in 2025, and have started this year without any sign of that momentum losing steam. Here’s why their ascents are not slowing.

China’s AI chip firms are going public fast. But its crown jewel is staying private

China’s artificial intelligence chip sector has drawn heavy investor interest following a string of successful initial public offerings. But while those newly listed firms have led market gains, analysts say they are not leading China’s effort to reduce reliance on Nvidia.

Instead, most analysts point to tech giant Huawei and its secretive chip unit, HiSilicon, as standing out among domestic competition, not only in technological advancement, but also in scale and its broader supply chain. Huawei, however, is not expected to go public.

— Dylan Butts