(Updates prices)

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'Sell America' fears hurt world stocks

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Bond market regains some stability, dollar dips

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All eyes on Trump's WEF speech, Greenland threats

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Trump lands in Zurich, heads to Davos

By Stella Qiu and Amanda Cooper

SYDNEY/LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Global shares fell for

a fourth day on Wednesday and some measures of market stress

remained high after a rout in global bonds and U.S. threats to

acquire Greenland kept investors on edge ahead of President

Donald Trump's Davos speech.

Fears of foreign selling of U.S. assets - the so-called "Sell

America" trade that emerged ‌after last year's "Liberation Day"

tariff announcements in April - gripped markets as Wall Street

tumbled more than 2% overnight and the U.S. dollar suffered its

biggest fall in over a month.

That sent investors into safe-havens like gold, ​which

rose as much as 2.6% to a new record of $4,887 an ounce, and

like the Swiss franc.

"The 'sell America' trade was the driving force behind ‍major

market moves overnight, as investors looked to reduce exposure

to the U.S., seen by many as an unreliable ⁠partner pursuing

self-defeating policies," said Mantas Vanagas, ⁠a senior

economist at Westpac.

Trump has doubled down on his rhetoric over Greenland, saying

there was "no going back" on his goal to control the island,

refusing to rule out taking it by force. Crucially ‌for markets,

his threat of tariffs on Europe has also rekindled fears of a

global ​trade war.

The European Union will convene an emergency summit in

Brussels on Thursday to discuss the matter, with the

long-standing U.S.-EU alliance at risk.

All eyes are now on the World Economic Forum in Davos, where

Trump is due to deliver a speech ⁠later in the day that could

either calm or inflame tensions with ‍Europe.

MSCI's All-World index was ​down 0.16%,

heading for a fourth daily drop, as was Europe's STOXX 600 index

, down 0.7%. The STOXX is laden with export-focussed

stocks, such as defence, pharma and tech, that have come under

pressure as the risks of additional U.S. tariffs have increased.

The VIX index, ‍which measures demand for protection

against big swings in the S&P 500, traded above 20 for a second

day, just below Tuesday's two-month highs. The index is often

used as a proxy for investor nervousness and for many, 20 is the

point above which market volatility can suddenly explode.

Futures on the S&P 500 were down 0.12%, while those

on the Nasdaq 100 were down 0.3%, having reversed course

earlier in the day.

"The key question is whether dip buyers step in to support

early weakness, or whether traders see developments that justify

taking risk down further," Pepperstone head of research Chris

Weston said.

BONDS ATTEMPT RECOVERY

The global ​bond market was ‍still reeling from a brutal

selloff, having been caught up in a perfect storm of worries

over exposure to U.S. assets and a surge in Japanese government

borrowing costs.

At the epicentre were long-dated Japanese sovereign bonds,

which endured their most aggressive selloff in nearly 25 ​years

on Tuesday, as fears grew over increased government spending

under Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. U.S. 30-year

Treasury yields neared the 5% threshold for the

first time since September, while German government bond yields

also rose sharply.

By Wednesday, Japanese bond prices rallied as buyers returned,

almost entirely reversing the previous day's rise in yields. A

similar dynamic played out across U.S. Treasuries, where 30-year

bond yields were steady at 4.918%.

In the foreign exchange markets, the dollar index, which tracks

the U.S. currency's performance against that of six others,

retreated for a third day, dipping 0.1%.

The euro rose 0.1% to $1.1733, adding to Tuesday's

0.7% gain, while the Swiss franc firmed, leaving the

dollar down 0.1% at 0.7891 francs.

The yen was ​a touch stronger at 157.77 per dollar

ahead of a Bank of Japan policy meeting on Friday. No rate hike

is expected this time though policymakers could signal an

increase may be coming as soon as April.

Oil prices were steady, as pressure from geopolitical

tensions and an expected build-up in U.S. crude inventories was

offset by a temporary halt in output at two large fields ‍in

Kazakhstan. Brent crude futures were unchanged on the

day at $64.91 a barrel.

(Additional reporting by Stella Qiu in Sydney; Editing by Shri

Navaratnam, Elaine Hardcastle and Chizu Nomiyama )