The main events by the morning: April 2

• Investments in gold assets have reached record levels since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason is that investors are worried about possible new tariffs that Trump may announce as early as tonight. As a result, in the first quarter of 2025, the inflow of funds to funds investing in «protective» gold amounted to $19.2 billion.

• A new round of negotiations between the United States and Russia may take place as early as this week. Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, will meet with Trump's special envoy, Dan Witkoff, in Washington. This will be the first visit of a senior Russian official to the United States since 2022 and an important step towards improving relations between the two countries.

• The United States is considering the possibility of imposing 500% duties on goods from countries that purchase Russian oil. This proposal will be put forward if Moscow refuses to participate in a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. If the duties are imposed, they will affect all goods imported to the United States from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other resources.

• Trump continues to hope for the acquisition of Greenland. According to The Washington Post, his team is currently assessing the cost of maintaining Greenland as one of the US states and analyzing possible revenues to the federal budget from the extraction of mineral resources.

• Europe is facing a crisis that is impoverishing its population compared to the United States. Analysts estimate that at the beginning of the euro's appearance, the eurozone's GDP was almost at the level of the United States, with a population of 450 million people in the eurozone and 340 million in the United States. Today, the ratio is about $15 trillion to $26.9 trillion. This means that in terms of GDP per capita, Europeans are 80% poorer than Americans.