Bloomberg — Over the last few months, sealed wooden boxes have been arriving in the holds of commercial flights from London to New York, strapped up and tightly packed against tampering. Cheaper, bulkier silver is typically sent by ship.
Gold and copper are also pouring into the US. Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.
We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. He had signaled that levies could come as soon as Feb. Gold is typically moved from one trading hub to another in the cargo hold of passenger aircraft. In the London market, ounce bars are the standard, while for the Comex contract traders must deliver ounce or kilobars. That means gold to be delivered against Comex typically comes from large refineries in Switzerland or trading hubs in Asia where kilobars are popular.
For silver, there is no such size issue: both the London market and Comex deal in hefty 1,ounce bars. And while in normal times, silver is too low in value to be worth the cost of transporting it by plane, market disruptions can upend the normal economics of commodity trading.
In the s, for example, traders even put much-lower-value aluminum on to planes in order to more quickly capture an arbitrage. Many market participants doubt that precious metals will be included in any tariffs, but that has not stopped traders from seeking to close out their exposure. The last time the precious metals markets saw dislocations on this scale was during the early days of the pandemic.
