Silver Hits $80, Gold 'Now Pricing the End of US Hegemony' as Trump Seeks 'Big Hug' from Xi

SILVER and GOLD both hit 4-week highs on Wednesday as Russia claimed that it's working with China to save the world from the US-Israeli war on Iran while the US-European split in Nato worsened again.

With Israel continuing to attack Lebanon despite the US calling for direct peace talks amid its 'ceasefire' with Tehran, Iran threatened to attack shipping in the Gulf, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman if the White House doesn't lift the US blockade of Iranian oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude oil held little changed as global stock markets rose, testing 5-week lows beneath $95 per barrel.

"Europe is accelerating a Nato fallback plan in case Trump pulls out," says a Wall Street Journal exclusive, claiming that Germany's Chancellor Merz is now part of discussions to boost the region's protection against Russia should Washington withdraw forces or refuse to support its allies.

"Any rebalancing − whether of the world order, monetary systems, or policy frameworks − is inherently volatile," says a presentation from precious metals strategist Nicky Shiels at Swiss bullion refining and finance group MKS Pamp.

"Gold is pricing in this structural transition away from US hegemony and peak globalisation," says Shiels, showing a chart of investment research company BCA's Global Systems Health Indicators which on a long-term view is the inverse of gold's price chart across the past century.

Gold prices today hit $4870 per Troy ounce in Asian trading on Wednesday as Shanghai bullion also touched 4-week highs, fixing at ¥1060 per gram.

Silver meantime hit $81 per ounce and then held firmer than gold, rising back to $80 in late London trade as the price of 'safe haven' gold struggled below $4830.

"I've held back firing him. I've wanted to fire him, but I hate to be controversial, you know?" President Trump today said to Fox Business of Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell, who has so far said he will continue as a Fed governor when his term as chairman ends in May.

"I'm shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong," Trump said in a separate interview published today commenting on Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, formerly one of the President's leading European allies.

"She's unacceptable," Trump said after Meloni refused to join the US war with Iran and also questioned Trump's criticism of the Pope for calling for an end to the conflict.

With less than 2 weeks until King Charles III's state visit to Washington, Trump also re-tweeted an article from right-wing UK newspaper The Sun saying that "If hot air was a weapon [then UK Prime Minister] Starmer would have rearmed Britain – but words don't win wars."

"The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!" the Commander-in-Chief then tweeted above an AI image of Jesus Christ embracing the President, continuing the row over his since-deleted tweet of an AI image of himself as the Christian saviour healing the sick, as well as saying in another post that he is blockading the Strait of Hormuz so that Iran is forced to re-open it to oil tankers heading for China.

"President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks."

"It is not a law of nature that Nato will exist forever," says the alliance's former Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. "Its survival in the next ten years is not set in stone."

China and Russia "are effectively combining their potential and their resources together to get the planet off the hook," said Kremlin spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to Sputnik Radio today, claiming that the 2 nuclear armed, permanent UN Security Council members are working together to resolve the US-Israeli war on their ally Iran.

The Dollar steadied today after falling to its weakest exchange rate against the Western world's other major currencies since just after the war began, losing 1.7% on its DXY index over the past week.

With gold still 7.5% below its Dollar price on the eve of the US-Israeli war on Iran and silver down almost twice as much, the S&P500 index of US corporate stocks today rose further after surpassing its 27 February level on Tuesday.