Trade war pushes gold and silver prices to record highs

US President Donald Trump announced new global tariffs on Wednesday, a move that shook markets and sent gold and silver prices to record highs.

"For decades, our country has been pillaged, plundered, raped, and plundered by countries near and far, both friendly and hostile," Trump said in his White House address.

He added, "America's steelworkers, autoworkers, farmers, and skilled craftspeople—many of whom are here today—have suffered terribly. They watched in pain as foreign leaders stole our jobs, foreign crooks looted our factories, and foreign plunderers tore apart our beautiful American dream."

"In just a few moments, I will sign a historic executive order imposing reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world," he said. "This is one of the most important days, in my view, in American history. It is our declaration of economic independence."

Trump said the new tariffs would generate "trillions and trillions of dollars" to cut taxes and pay down the national debt. He added, "With today's action, we will finally make America great again, greater than ever before."

The president claimed that countries had imposed massive tariffs on American products and created non-monetary barriers that harmed American industries. "They manipulated their currencies, subsidized their exports, stole our intellectual property, imposed exorbitant [value-added] taxes to hurt our products, adopted unfair technology rules and standards, and created dirty pollution havens."

He said, "Foreign countries will finally be asked to pay for the privilege of accessing our market, the largest market in the world."

Gold prices experienced sharp fluctuations during Trump's remarks, fluctuating between $3,106 and $3,145 per ounce before settling in a range between $3,127 and $3,138 per ounce by the end of the speech.

Silver prices also saw strong demand during the tariff announcement, with spot silver hitting a session high of $34.154 before retreating to $33.890 per ounce.