World markets face fresh jolt as Trump vows tariffs on Europe over Greenland

LONDON: Global markets face a fresh bout of volatility this week after President Donald Trump vowed to slap tariffs on eight European nations until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.

Trump said he would impose an additional 10 percent import tariffs from February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Britain, which will rise to 25 percent on June 1 if no deal is reached.

“Hopes that the tariff situation has calmed down for this year have been dashed for now - and we find ourselves in the same situation as last spring,” said Berenberg chief economist Holger Schmieding.

Sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025 sent shockwaves through financial markets. Investors then largely looked past Trump trade threats in the second half of the year, viewing them as noise and responding with relief as Trump made deals with the likes of Britain and the European Union.

While that lull might be over, market moves on Monday could be dampened by the experience that investor sentiment had been more resilient and global economic growth stayed on track.

Nonetheless, Schmieding expected the euro could come under some pressure when Asian trade begins. The euro ended Friday at around USD1.16 against the dollar, having hit its lowest levels since late November.

Implications for the dollar were less clear. It remains a safe haven, but could also feel the impact of Washington being at the centre of geopolitical ruptures, as it did last April.

“For European markets it will be a small setback, but not something comparable to the Liberation Day reaction,” Schmieding said.

European stocks are trading near record highs, with Germany’s DAX and London’s blue-chip FTSE index up more than 3 percent since the start of the year, outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 1.3 percent.

European defence shares are likely to remain an outlier - benefiting from increased geopolitical tensions. Defence stocks have jumped almost 15 percent this month, as the US seizure of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro fuelled concerns about Greenland.

Denmark’s closely managed crown will also likely be in focus. It has been weakening, but rate differentials are a major factor and it is still close to the central rate at which it is pegged to the euro. It is trading not far from six-year lows against the euro.

“The US-EU trade war is back on,” said Tina Fordham, geopolitical strategist and founder of Fordham Global Foresight. Trump’s latest move came as top officials from the EU and South American bloc Mercosur signed a free trade agreement.

The dispute over Greenland is just one hot spot. Trump has also weighed intervening in unrest in Iran, while the US administration’s threat to indict Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has reignited concerns about its independence.

Against this backdrop, safe-haven gold remains near record highs.

The World Economic Forum’s annual risk perception survey, released ahead of its annual meeting in Davos, which will be attended by Trump, identified economic confrontation between nations as the number one concern replacing armed conflict.

While investors have grown increasingly wary of geopolitical risk, they have also become used to it to some extent.

“Investor sentiment has proven quite resilient in the face of the sort of continuing unthinkable sorts of developments, which probably reflects a combination of like faith that Trump just won’t be able to do all of the things that he talks about mixed with a sense that none of this kind of moves the needle on asset prices,” said Fordham.