CNBC Daily Open: Gold and silver pop over geopolitical turmoil, including U.S.-Denmark rift over Greenland

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, all parties appeared to have made their stance regarding the issue abundantly clear.

"If we have to choose between the USA and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO, the Kingdom of Denmark and the EU," Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Tuesday.

And in a social media post just prior to the Wednesday meeting, Trump reiterated his desire for unequivocal U.S. control of Greenland, insisting that "Anything less than that is unacceptable."

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."

Following his 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. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, will report full-year earnings later today. If it provides optimistic guidance, a speedy recovery for semiconductor stocks might be in the books.

— CNBC's Sam Meredith and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.

Trump and Denmark have a 'fundamental disagreement' over Greenland. That's according to Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who made the remark following a meeting with top U.S. officials in Washington on Wednesday.

Tesla's Full Self-Driving will be a monthly subscription. CEO Elon Musk said the software will not be on sale for a flat rate after Feb. 14. FSD, which is key to autonomous vehicles, will start at $99 per month, compared with its one-time price of $8,000.

Trump clears sale of Nvidia's H200 chips to China. Formal regulations of the approval, announced in December, were published by the U.S. government on Tuesday. The U.S. government will take 25% of the sales of the chips, which are not designed specifically for China.

Major U.S. indexes fell Wednesday. Chip stocks weighed on markets, with Broadcom, Nvidia and Micron sliding. The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.18% to touch a record high. BP shares added 1.5% even as the oil giant warned about taking impairment charges of $4 billion to $5 billion.

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Trump's latest geopolitical gambits all lead back to China

In 10 days, Donald Trump captured the Venezuelan president, spooked European leaders with talk of annexing Greenland, and imposed 25% tariffs on anyone trading with Iran. The common thread may be America's determination to challenge China and its dominance of critical minerals.

By taking over Venezuela's oil industry, the U.S. can curb Chinese access to crucial resources and mining investments. By annexing Greenland, it could keep rivals out of emerging trade routes and, potentially, the mining of minerals. By tariffing anyone trading with Iran, the U.S. can penalize both the Middle Eastern country and China for buying oil from it.

— Tasmin Lockwood