All three major Wall Street indexes ended Tuesday with their biggest one-day drops in three months, in a broad sell-off triggered by concerns that fresh tariff threats from US President Donald Trump against Europe could signal renewed market volatility.

The risk-off trade was pervasive, helping vault gold to fresh record highs, and pushing up debt costs with US Treasuries wobbling under renewed selling pressure. Bitcoin, which can find favour when traditional markets waver, fell more than 3 percent.

All three US equity benchmarks registered their worst one-day performance since October 10, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipping below their 50-day moving averages.

The S&P 500 lost 143 points, or 2.1 percent, to end at 6,796, while the Nasdaq gave up 561 points, or 2.4 percent, to 22,954. The Dow fell 870 points, or ⁠1.8 percent, to 48,488.

Tuesday was the first opportunity for US investors to act on Trump's weekend comments, given the market holiday for Martin Luther King Jr Day.

This included Trump saying additional 10 percent import tariffs would take effect on February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain – all already subject to US tariffs.

The tariffs would increase to 25 percent on June 1 and continue until a deal was reached for the US to purchase Greenland, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. Leaders of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, and Denmark have insisted the island is not for sale.

The re-injection of tariff threats into global markets harkens back to April's "Liberation Day," when Trump's levies on global trade partners pushed the S&P 500 to near bear market territory.

The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, spiked to 20.09 points, its highest close since November 24. (Reuters)